


Living the Dream

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: Soulmate Dreams [7]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Background Relationships, Child Celebrity Problems, Family Issues, M/M, Skating Season, University, haircut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-01-19 14:20:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 43
Words: 54,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12411966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: After all the excitement and drama of last year, Viktor and Yuuri hope for a quiet year of getting to enjoy their new status as newlyweds, university students, and world record holders.  It won't be easy, especially with Yuri breaking out into the public eye.Sequel toDream Connection,Reality Check,Dreaming With Our Eyes Open,Here in the Real World,What Dreams May Come, andDreams Come True.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plans for the new year.
> 
> Timeline: late May/early June 2011

When Yuuri was twelve, he had several dreams. He wanted to skate in international competitions. He wanted to meet Viktor Nikiforov on the ice and earn his respect as an equal. He wanted a soulmate who would support him.

He was eighteen now, and much to his surprise, he’d been dreaming too small. He wasn’t just skating in international competitions, he had medals from the Grand Prix Finals, and Worlds. He hadn’t just met Viktor on the ice and earned his respect as an equal, he’d managed to beat Viktor once. His soulmate wasn’t just a nice person who gave him support. His soulmate believed in him and pushed him to go beyond what he’d ever thought possible, and was right there to help him up when things went wrong.

That his soulmate was also Viktor Nikiforov was something that his 12-year-old self would never have dared to dream.

Now, he was living the dream. That didn’t mean he didn’t have goals. He was going to master the quad flip, make a third consecutive Grand Prix Finals, and take another medal at Worlds. He was going to start college and be successful in his first year of classes. He was going to help mentor and guide Yuri through his first year of novices. He was going to make it another year without losing his temper and murdering a reporter.

That is, if he could ever come up with his program.

It hit him in the middle of a spirited argument that came up in a group chat. Viktor had been going on about ninjas, and Kamil interrupted to say that ninjas were boring and pirates were way better. This turned into a huge war among their friends, with battle lines drawn and sabers being rattled. Yuuri stayed out of the fight. He was too busy searching YouTube for pirate music.

The recent release of a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie made his free skate easy enough. For his short program, he was torn between Gilbert and Sullivan and Hook. He made the choice when he had the mental image of Viktor coming after him as Peter Pan. Or Rufio. Or the crocodile. His short program would combine two songs from _Pirates of Penzance_ \- “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” and “I Am a Pirate King”. Free Skate, music from Pirates of the Caribbean, and then exhibition, music from _Hook_.

Yakov approved it, although he didn’t get the joke, and he decided to choreograph it himself with advice from Lilia and Viktor. Lilia pretended not to understand the joke, but she was betrayed by a small smile.

Once he had the music arranged the way he wanted it and some basic choreography started, he asked Viktor to stay late one evening. “I’m working on my programs. Tell me what you think?”

“Sure! What’s your theme?”

“You’ll figure it out.” Yuuri winked and headed for center ice. The footwork for the step sequence to Modern Major General was tricky, and fast, and if he could get it down he’d be earning a lot of points for it. Viktor had some good ideas for choreography, which Yuuri agreed to try out. Yuuri started the free skate, but the music shut down after about fifteen seconds. He looked to the side of the rink to see Viktor collapsed to the floor, laughing so hard he couldn’t stand. “Vitya?”

Viktor sat up, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Yuuri! My love, my darling, my soulmate. How could you betray me like this? You’re supposed to be on my side against all foes.”

“Haven’t you seen Pirates of the Caribbean? Backstabbing and betrayal is what pirates do!” Yuuri skated over to the side and stuck out his tongue at Viktor. “I love you, you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, but you know how I feel about ninjas. Come on, get up and help me with this choreography.”

 

Skating had never been a dream for Viktor. He’d known since he was very small that he was gifted, and that if he was willing to put in the effort to match, he could rise as high as he dared in figure skating. His dreams were saved for love and life. People made fun of him all the time for his dedication to soulmates and his devotion to true love, and yes, sometimes, he took it too far. What he wanted for himself was someone who could accept him for what he was, in all his extraness and dramatic gestures, and love him. What he needed was someone who would keep him grounded. Keep the fame and the medals and the lights from going to his head and making him someone he wasn’t.

Yuuri was all of that and more. He’d been a little worried when he found out his soulmate was a fan, afraid that they’d want to have the press version of him, but Yuuri hadn’t just dealt with Viktor’s real personality. He’d encouraged Viktor to be himself, and any time Viktor started getting too Press Viktor-y, reminded him that Real Viktor was the one Yuuri loved. They fought sometimes over Viktor’s impulsiveness and inability to understand the concept of subtlety, but it resulted in compromise and Yuuri finding a way to channel Viktor’s enthusiasm into something good.

The fact that Yuuri was also his biggest challenger on the ice was a huge bonus. It would be very easy for Viktor to sit back and rest on his laurels after his dominant showing at Worlds – only one other skater could do three different quads, and Chris wasn’t exactly challenging him. Yuuri was, and he was training his second quad, which meant Viktor needed to push himself forward to keep up. The challenge excited him.

First step in the challenge, figure out his programs for the season. He’d decided that if Yuuri wasn’t going to do a pole dance inspired routine, he would. With that as his short program and a Latin-inspired dance for his free skate, he could bullshit a theme of seduction or something along those lines.

Of course, he ran his idea by Yuuri first. Yuuri just grinned. “You’re doing the sex appeal route? Doesn’t everyone do that?”

“Yes, but how many people do it the season after they get married?” Viktor winked. “I’ll come up with something else if you don’t like it, of course.”

Yuuri wrapped his arms around Viktor’s neck. “I can’t wait to see what you come up with. I just hope I never end up having to skate right after you, because that could be a problem if I’m distracted.”

 

Yuri was just starting out on his dream. He’d been working for years to put himself in this position, but now that it was here, he was a little scared. Of course no one expected him to achieve his goal of being the best right away, but what if he couldn’t do it at all? Viktor had given him good routines, Yakov had given him the skill, he had no excuse to not at least medal this year.

He needed to win. It wasn’t just about his ego or his dreams. He needed to win for his grandfather. Grandpa had worked himself way too hard to take care of Yuri and his mother after his father disappeared, and his mother wasn’t doing much to pay him back. That weight was all on Yuri’s shoulders. Yakov and Viktor kept warning him about predatory sponsors, encouraging him to stand up for himself and turn down sponsorships that made him uncomfortable, but they didn’t understand. They had never needed the sponsorship money the way Yuri did.

At least the one sponsor he already had wasn’t demanding anything yet that made Yuri uncomfortable. He’d done a couple of commercials for animal shelters, and he’d been given some training gear for a new line aimed at young skaters to wear as a walking billboard. It wasn’t his style, but he didn’t care. On the ice, all that mattered was getting good enough.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri visits his family in America.
> 
> Timeline: June 2011

Yuri did not want to be in this airport. He wanted to be at home with his cat, or on the ice. Everyone kept saying that he was in a good place going into the season, that for a kid his age he really was in great shape for the season, but all he heard was that people were setting him up to use his youth as an excuse for why he wasn’t winning yet. It was frustrating, and no one understood why.

Viktor just blew him off. “You’re better than I was at your age, you have nothing to worry about. No one expects you to come in and start winning right away!” The thing was, Yuri remembered very vividly Yakov saying that he was sponsored for three years and then it would be renegotiated – on the assumption that he was entering and winning prize money. So his sponsor, at least, was expecting him to win right away.

Even Mila didn’t get it. He’d thought she might. She wasn’t quite as old as the rest of the old people. But then, her parents had money to give her for training. She’d only just started getting sponsorships in the last year or so, and she had the luxury of saying she didn’t want to work for some of the people who showed interest. She told him to stop taking everything so seriously and have some fun.

He was having fun. That’s what he had Potya and his DS and even the stupid dogs for. It’s why he participated in freestyle games. Just because he refused to slack off just because Yakov wasn’t around didn’t mean he wasn’t having fun.

It’s not even like Natasha would remember if he showed up for her birthday or not. Next year, maybe it would be a big deal and she’d know to even ask about him, but this year? She was still a baby. Boris didn’t want him there, he made it obvious every time Yuri came, so what was the big deal?

Nikolai was making him go, though. “Babies feel more than we sometimes give them credit for. Go see your sister.”

“Aren’t you coming?” He’d thought Nikolai would be there, too, but the way he was talking…

Nikolai shook his head. “I’d meant to go, but I hurt my back at work again, and I couldn’t take the flight. I’m sorry, Yurotchka, but you should still go.”

Viktor and Yuuri had immediately offered to go when Yuri told Yakov why he wanted to cancel the trip, but Yakov refused to let them. Their off-season had already been shortened so much by Worlds being late, they needed to stay and work on their programs. Yuri called Irina to tell her he couldn’t come, but no, of course it wouldn't work that easily. Boris apparently had nothing better to do than fly to Saint Petersburg to get him.

 

So now here Yuri was, sitting in an airport with stupid Boris who had come to Saint Petersburg to get him. Boris was talking to some guy sitting near them. Yuri tuned them out, focusing on his DS, until he heard Boris mention his name. “Yuri here fancies himself a figure skater. We’ll find out this year if it’s been worth it or not, he’s starting novice competitions.”

“Really. I was a skater when I was younger. Good luck, Yuri.”

Yuri glanced up from the game. He didn't recognize the man at all, although there was something vaguely familiar about him. He brushed it off. If he was a skater, Yuri might have seen him on TV. “Thanks. I’m going to go to the Olympics one day.”

“I’ll be sure to look for you. Yuri Smagin?”

“Fuck no.” Yuri gagged at the thought. He’d get Viktor to adopt him before he’d accept anyone trying to stick him with Boris’s name. “Yuri Nikolayevich Plisetsky. Boris is my mother’s new boyfriend. He’s not my father.”

“Ah, I see. My apologies. Plisetsky. Good luck this year.” The man smiled. Yuri shuddered and went back to his game. Something about the guy just rubbed him wrong. Maybe it was as simple as he seemed to know Boris, and anyone who was a friend of Boris had to have something wrong with them.

 

Natasha was more fun this time around, at least. She wasn’t crying nearly as much, and she could say a few words. Mama, Papa, kitty, and no were her big favorites. Yuri had to admit she was very cute when Boris asked her to do something and she’d say “NO!” and start giggling. The first couple of days Yuri was there, Natasha was shy around him, clinging tightly to the stuffed tiger she carried with her everywhere whenever he was nearby. Then she handed him the tiger. “Kitty.”

“Yes, Natasha, that’s a kitty. Kotyenok, can you say that?”

“Kot.”

“Close enough.” Yuri patted the tiger. “Does it have a name?”

“Kitty.”

“Yes, it’s a kitty, but does it have a name?”

“Kitty.”

“Your name is Natasha. My name is Yuri. The tiger’s name?”

“Kitty!” She took the tiger back and hugged it. “Yu-ya?”

“Yuri.”

“Yu-ya.”

After a couple more rounds of that, Yuri gave up. Natasha was stubborn, and she was his sister, why shouldn’t she call him by a nickname anyway? He wasn’t telling anyone at the rink about this. Or that he kind of liked his little sister.

From then on, Natasha stopped being shy around him, and Yuri started playing with her instead of the DS. May as well enjoy the time he had before she turned into a spoiled nuisance.

 

Irina had gone back to work after Yuri left in January. She’d taken a few days off to spend with Yuri when he first got here, but she couldn’t take the whole time. Natasha had a sitter, but there was still the question of what to do with Yuri while Boris and Irina were gone. Yuri thought he was old enough to stay on his own, but Irina disagreed. “In Russia, maybe, but you’re in a foreign country.”

Boris had a suggestion. “Come with us. One of the designers I work with usually works with his nephew, but his nephew’s got chicken pox right now. You’re about the same size, I think, so you could give him a chance to keep working.”

Yuri considered it. Better than having to go to some dumb sitter, especially… “Would I get paid?”

“Yurotchka!” Irina scowled at him.

“No, it’s a fair question,” Boris said. “Yes. You will. It’s not nearly as much as your mama makes for a job, but it’ll be something, anyway. It’ll also be valuable experience for you – sponsors want you to do this kind of stuff for them.”

 

Yuri’s last day there was Natasha’s birthday, which meant that neither he nor Irina would be going into work. Yuri had enjoyed it – the designer’s fashion sense was terrible, and Yuri hoped never again to have to wear that much pastel at once, but Boris was right about the usefulness of the experience, and he was looking forward to handing Nikolai the envelope of money Boris gave him after the last day. At least he could show his current sponsor he could bring in some money on his own.

Natasha looked hilarious with chocolate smeared all over her face and in her hair. Kitty got some chocolate on her, too, but she’d wash. Apparently, the tiger’s name was Kitty, as Natasha had started referring to other cats as “kot”.

Yuri’s present for Natasha was met with eyerolls from Boris and Irina, but Natasha’s eyes lit up and she hugged the leopard print dress and socks with glee. “Yu-ya!” She held out her arms to Yuri to hug him too.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Assignments!
> 
> Timeline: late June/early July 2010

While Yuri was gone, Yakov called his senior skaters together. “The ISU has put in a new option this year. Top six at Worlds can get a third assignment for the Grand Prix. It won’t count for points, but you’ll get money for the appearance, in addition to any prizes you win.”

They all looked at each other. All of them were top six. “How does that work? Do they count the first two or the best two?” Misha asked.

“The first two.”

Viktor scoffed. “I don’t want a third one, then. It takes a spot away from another skater to have a chance. I don’t want to risk getting hurt.”

Misha nodded. “Same. I’m getting old, a bad injury could be career-ending at this point. It’s a risk in any competition, but if it’s one I’m in just for the money, I don’t think Emya would ever forgive me.”

“Yeah, I’m with them. If they took the two best, I’d do it, but a non-scoring event, no thanks,” Georgi said.

Yuuri had to think about it. His family could use the money, but he understood everyone’s point about injuries and taking a spot from someone who might need the chance even more. Then he felt Viktor’s hand on his shoulder and smiled. Right. Money was not something he had to worry about, not anymore. It was hard to shake the mindset, and he probably never would, but this time he could make the decision based on something else. “I’ll pass.”

Yakov nodded. “All right. I’ll notify the ISU. Back to practice.”

 

Assignment day wasn’t nearly as late as Viktor had expected it would be. Yakov called everyone together at the first of July. “All right. Mila first. Mila, you’ve got the Brisbane Cup September 8th. Cathy Tanaka won silver last year, so with Crispino moving up, she’s the favorite to win gold this year.”

“Sara moved up? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I wanted to skate against her.”

“Well, you’ll have your chance in a few years. In the meantime, focus on the people you are skating against. Juniors is always difficult to predict, but I don’t think any of the other girls will be a contender. Your second competition is the Tallinn Cup. You’ll be up against a girl from Japan, Akahoshi Kei. I don’t know anything about her but Japan’s ladies’ skaters are usually very good. There’s also Corinna Muresanu, from Romania. She’d have been in the Finals last year if she hadn’t hurt herself. Hard to say how she comes back from that, at her age, but she’s good and her coach should have her prepared.”

Mila turned to Yuuri. “Is Phichit going to be in either of those?”

Yuuri shook his head. “I don’t know yet. I’ll check in with him once Yakov’s done with us.”

“Good boy.” Yakov smiled a bit. “All right. Seniors. First up is Skate America. Yuuri, you get to go first again – it worked for you last year, so don’t let it freak you out. There’s a lot of competition, with Jude, Kamil, Bin, and Aaron. No one you can’t beat, but several good skaters to contend with for the podium.”

“I’ll do my best.” Viktor took Yuuri’s hand and squeezed it, very much hoping not to hear his name in the next competition.

“Next: Skate Canada. Georgi, this one’s just you. You’ll be up against Chris and Kaleb, along with Paul, and Michele Crispino. Again, no reason you can’t win, but good competition. I’m interested to see what Michele does. Vitya, Misha, you’ve both got the Cup of China. Other than the two of you, it looks like a weak field – Aaron’s the only major threat, although Su did very well last year and Sachio might make a run.”

Viktor clapped. “You’ll let me go to America, right?”

“If you train hard and your programs look good. Same deal as always.” Yakov scowled at Viktor, but Viktor ignored that. He could go to be with Yuuri in America. “Yuuri, I can’t let you go to China, because you’re skating in the NHK. Georgi, you too.” Yakov looked ahead in his notes. “Vitya, do well in China and I’m sending you to Japan as well. Rykov will be there, along with Jude and Michele.”

“I’ll do well! I always do!” Viktor winked and pulled Yuuri into a hug.

Yuuri cuddled in. “Rykov shouldn’t be a problem. Sasha’s not going to let him.”

“Better safe than sorry, unless Vitya needs the practice time.” Yakov glared at them again. “Eric Bompard, Misha, that one’s just you, and it’s going to be another crowded field. You’ve got Chris, Kamil, Kaleb, Bin, and Paul. And then Cup of Russia, Vitya. Not much competition there either. Kamil.” Huh. It looked like Kamil took the third event. Interesting – maybe Kamil needed the money for something. Chris hadn’t. “Rykov’s there, too, and Su. No excuses for missing finals for you, Vitya. The rest of you should be able to make it, but you’ve all got at least one event where you might struggle. Any other questions?”

“Yes!” Viktor reached out and ruffled Yuri’s hair, getting swatted for his trouble. “What competitions are you skipping for Yuri?”

“Cup of China. Lilia can go with you if you want, especially since Yuuri won’t be going, but I’m taking Yuri to Skate Celje. Yuri, your mother and grandfather agreed to a few competitions other than the European Criterium and the Challenge Cup. Lilia’s going to Slovakia with you while I’m in Canada with Georgi. I’ll be meeting you in Dortmund after the Cup of Russia. And then Slovenia in February.”

Georgi jumped a little. “I’ll be all right in Canada. You should go with Yuri. It’ll be his first competition.”

“I’m not just going for you, Georgi. I want the chance to evaluate Michele, too. Not this year, but I expect to see him in the Finals.”

“You can’t do that over video or in Japan?” Georgi pushed.

Yakov looked down at Yuri. Yuri was scowling, but he met Yakov’s eyes. “You’re the coach.”

Yakov nodded. “All right, then. I’ll talk to Lilia about switching.”

Everyone turned to look at Yuuri. Yuuri looked back. “What?”

“Phichit?” Mila prompted. “I know I won’t be skating against him, but I bet we’d have fun hanging out together.”

Yuuri looked at Viktor. They were both thinking the same thing – Mila and Phichit hanging out could be a terrible idea for Yakov’s hair. Yuuri checked his phone after a nod from Yakov. “Phichit… no. Baltic Cup and Cup of Austria. Seung Gil’s going to the Trofeo Lombardi, though.” He checked another message and nearly jumped into Viktor’s arms in joy. “Yuuko’s in the Grand Prix! Skate America and the NHK, even! We have the same events!”

“That’s amazing, Yuuri! I'm so glad she made it back!” Viktor hugged Yuuri while Yuuri texted Yuuko back. “We’re going to have so much fun!”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Training and goofing off and drama! Oh my!
> 
> Timeline: July 2011

July passed in training and hard work. Yakov and Lilia took off for a few days to visit their grandson, and while they were gone, most people took advantage of it. Chris came up to visit for three days. Viktor and Yuuri went to practice, but Viktor skipped out early and even Yuuri knocked off at his intended stopping time instead of staying late. Georgi only showed up every other day, spending the skipped days with Anya as they looked for a house together. Misha only skipped out one day, when Emiliya needed a break from Nika, but when he was at the rink he took it somewhat easy. Mila took a break too, focusing on schoolwork since her tutor wasn’t letting her out.

Yuri was the only one who worked just like usual. Any time Mila or Viktor tried to convince him to take it easy, Yuuri intervened. The day after Chris left, Yuuri told Viktor to go on without him when he left. “I’m going to stay and work with Yuri. I’ll call when we’re on our way home.”

“Yuuuuuri…”

“Vitya. Go home. Play with the dogs. I will be there when Yuri and I are ready to leave.” Yuuri kissed Viktor and then gave him a firm shove toward the door.

Yuri watched Viktor go. “Thanks for staying.”

Yuuri shrugged. “You need to practice. Not for your skills, but for your head. I get that and I’m happy to stay. If you want me to work with you on something, just tell me, otherwise I’m going to see about practicing this quad salchow. I feel like I’m getting close.”

“Good luck.” Yuri skated off to work on his combination spin, leaving Yuuri to practice his salchow. Three reps led to three falls, and then Yuri came skating over.

“You’re holding on too long. You need to open up out of the rotation a little sooner.”

“Okay…?” Yuri had taken really well to salchows, so maybe he knew what he was talking about, but Yuri wasn't doing quads yet. Would he know what Yuuri was doing wrong?

Yuri misunderstood his hesitance. “Just do it.”

Yuuri shrugged. Another fall wouldn’t hurt too much. May as well try it. He took off, and opened up out of the rotation what felt like too early. He didn’t land well, putting both feet and a hand down, but he didn’t fall, either. Yuri skated off, returning to his spins. Yuuri tried again, and this time, it went even better. When his next try led to him falling again, he headed out to sit in the bleachers and watch Yuri. Yuri had probably been right, but Yuuri was starting to get a little tired of jumps.

Yuri came over and sat beside him after a few more spins. “Why’d you stay with me?”

“You’re under a lot of pressure right now. Most of it is from you, but it’s still pressure. It always helped me when I could stay and work for a bit.”

Yuri scowled and crossed his arms. “You’re not going to lecture me about wanting to win, are you?”

Yuuri smiled and shook his head. “No. I’m just going to remind you that we’re standing behind you whether you win or not. You’re doing well, but I’ve never entered a competition I didn’t want to win either. Even ones I knew I had no chance, I always wanted to win. It sucks to lose even when you know it’s coming.”

“I don’t just want to win. I need to win. For Grandpa, for sponsors. To show Boris that yes, this is worth it.”

“What’s Boris got to do with anything?” Yuri had nothing he wanted or needed to prove to Boris, last Yuuri checked.

“He told some guy at the airport that this year we found out whether me skating was worth it. I don’t know why he gives a shit, he hates having me around and if I weren’t skating Mama would probably make me move to America with her, but I want to show him that I’m better than he’s expecting.”

Yuuri hugged Yuri. “Don’t let the others get to you. You’re driven, but there’s nothing wrong with that.”

 

When they got home, Viktor was pouting in a corner. It was cute, but it was also somewhat disturbing. Had Viktor been sitting there pouting the whole time, instead of doing something useful or fun? Yuuri went over and sat in his lap, causing Yuri to roll his eyes and stomp up to his room. “Vitya. What’s wrong?”

“Why wouldn’t you let me stay?”

“Did you want to? If you’d stayed, and watched like you do when it’s just me, I wouldn’t have had a problem with that. I did want the chance to talk to Yuri, though, and it’s something you don’t understand. You don’t know what it’s like to worry about whether you can afford to pay your coach – and before you start, you and I know Yuri never has to worry about that either, but he doesn’t. For all he knows, his sponsor’s going to drop him if he doesn’t medal every time.”

Viktor shook his head. “No sponsor does that. He may be slower to get other sponsors if he’s not medaling, but I’m not really worried about it. Yakov knows how to promote his skaters, and any idiot would be able to see that Yuri will be great.”

“Would you have let us skate, or would you have been distracting me?”

Viktor leaned forward and kissed Yuuri’s nose. “Distracting. Fine. I still don’t get what the big deal is about needing to work so hard at his age, and you know Yakov won’t let him put in overtime like you do. He doesn’t have your stamina.”

“Yet. Give him a few years.” Yuuri kissed Viktor’s cheek. “Speaking of my stamina, though, don’t forget we have pole dance lessons tonight. Help me get dinner done so Yuri can eat?”

 

Yakov went hard on them when he got back, and Lilia didn’t go any easier on her dancers. It was hard work, but they were prepared for it, and it went quickly. Yuuri tried to look out for Yuri, to keep Mila and Viktor from going too hard on him, and for the most part, he succeeded. By the start of August, everyone was starting to get comfortable with their programs, but Yuri had no problem telling Irina no when she invited him back to New York for Boris’s birthday.

“You’ll come out in June again, won’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Good. Boris and I have been talking about getting married, and you should be in the wedding.”

“What.”

“We have a daughter together, why are you so surprised we’re considering getting married?” Yuri hung up and threw his phone, because he didn’t have a good answer for that. He should have seen this coming.

Viktor handed him the phone back. “What’s wrong?”

“Mama and Boris are getting married. They want me at the wedding.”

Viktor hugged Yuri, over Yuri’s protests. “Isn’t that a good thing? That they want you there?”

“They don’t. Mama does. Natasha probably does. Boris would rather have me stay in Russia.”

"Even so, at least your mama is making sure you're included."

"I guess." That was better than finding out oh by the way we got married and didn't invite you, Yuri had to admit.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The stays of execution have run out and tragedy strikes. ;-)
> 
> Timeline: August 2011

After both Yuuri and Viktor demonstrated good progress on their programs and good progress on the quads they were training, Yakov agreed to a short trip to Hasetsu for the triplets’ birthday. Yuuri wasn’t quite ready to plan a quad flip for his first competition, but he thought maybe he’d have it ready for the NHK. Viktor was a little farther away from the Lutz, but since he didn’t have anyone around who could do one to watch, it was always going to be harder to learn.

Yuuko was happy to see them. She made them come to the ice rink and watch her programs – her theme this season was resilience, suggested by Tamae, and her programs were beautiful. “I’m still having trouble with some of the triples, but it’s okay. I’ll get there.”

“We’ll help as much as we can while we’re here,” Yuuri promised.

The girls were adorable. They were babbling, but none of them had said anything that could be recognized as a meaningful word. Yuuko wasn’t worried. “They were over a month early, so the doctor said they’d be later than most kids their age. They’ll talk when they’re ready and I’ll spend quite a bit of time wishing they’d shut up.”

Yuuri smiled as Axel and Loop started fighting over a toy fish. Yuuko rolled her eyes and walked away. Yuuri followed. “Shouldn’t you be doing something?”

“I am. I’m letting them settle their own differences. They’ll have to figure it out, and Lutz will let me know if there’s any risk of them hurting each other. They’ve got some sort of triplet telepathy going on.”

The girls were starting to show personality. Loop was still the quietest of the three, and the one with the worst separation anxiety. She was also still fascinated with Viktor’s hair. Lutz was the mischievous one. She still squirmed and tried to get away any time Yuuko’s mother came over, but at least she wasn’t screaming. Axel was the most outgoing and the charmer.

 

While they were in Hasetsu, Viktor decided it was time. “Yuuri, come to Fukuoka with me?”

Yuuri looked up from his phone. “Why?”

“It’s haircut time. I’ve been putting it off, but I need to get it done, and if I do it while we’re here it’ll be so fun to see everyone’s face at the rink when we get back!”

Yuuri swallowed hard. He did not want to see Viktor’s hair gone. But he nodded and got ready to go. “Do you know what you want to do with it?”

“I’ve got a couple ideas. Here, take a look and tell me what you think.” Viktor pulled out his phone and handed it to Yuuri, open to an album of pictures of haircuts.

Yuuri flipped through them. They were all so short. He found one he could imagine on Viktor, short but not too short, with bangs falling into the model’s face. “I kind of like this one, I guess. I think it would suit your programs for this year, too. It’s kind of… playboy?”

Viktor grinned. “That was my favorite, too! I think that’s what I’ll ask for.”

Yuuri couldn’t watch the first cuts. He closed his eyes and waited. When he opened them again, nearly all of the long silver hair was on the ground. Viktor had a narrow braid held in one hand. Yuuri looked at it curiously. Viktor winked. “Souvenir. We can put it on the trophy wall with the medals. What do you think?”

Yuuri thought it over. “You look so different. I’m going to withhold judgment until I see the actual cut, but it’s not as bad as I’d feared.”

Viktor smiled, and Yuuri watched as the final haircut started taking shape. It looked good. Not as good as the long hair had, but that could just be Yuuri’s bias toward what he was used to seeing. When the hairdresser declared Viktor done, Yuuri nodded at the question on Viktor’s face. “I think I’ll like it once I’ve gotten used to it. What do you think?”

“I think my neck is cold!” Viktor tossed his head experimentally, trying to shake the hair out of his eyes. “That’s going to take some getting used to, too. I’m keeping the haircut through Worlds, and then we’ll talk about it?”

“Sounds good.”

 

Yuuri’s parents took the haircut in stride, barely even blinking as they said nice things about their handsome son-in-law. Mari refused to believe it was Viktor. “Yuuri, you never said anything about Viktor’s older brother.”

“Vitya doesn’t have an older brother. This is Vitya.”

“No it’s not. Good resemblance, but he’s not Viktor.”

Viktor smothered the laugh. “It’s me, Mari. I just cut my hair, that’s all!”

Mari shook her head and walked off without another word. Yuuri squeezed Viktor’s hand. “I think she hates it. Sorry.”

“Her opinion isn’t the important one. I’m not taking anyone’s opinion too seriously until I’ve decided what I think of it! I don’t hate it so much that I’m regretting it, you seem to be willing to give it a chance, so as long as Yakov doesn’t kill me, I think it’ll be okay until I decide whether to keep it, try something else, or grow it out.”

Yuuko made up for the lack of reaction, screaming and nearly throwing Loop into Viktor’s arms while she ran off to deal with the nosebleed. Loop started crying when she realized the silver locks were now out of her reach, causing Viktor to hug her tightly. Takeshi came in carrying a sleepy Lutz. “Holy shit. I thought Yuuko was joking. You look great, Viktor.”

“Thanks!” Viktor tossed his bangs out of his eyes. “Your daughter doesn’t seem to approve.”

Takeshi shrugged. “She’ll get over it. Yuuri, what do you think of it?”

Yuuri looked up from his phone. “I think it’s hilarious that it’s already hit the internet and Phichit’s first response was to text me and make sure I wasn’t heartbroken. The Hamsters are ready to go the second anyone sees anything about you cutting your hair meaning that you and I are having trouble, or that you sprung this on me without warning.”

Viktor blinked. “Why would a haircut mean you and I are having trouble?”

Takeshi shrugged. “It’s a thing on TV. When people break up, they cut off their hair. I don’t know why, it’s just a thing. So you cut off your hair, obviously that means you and Yuuri broke up again. Some idiot’s going to say it.”

“Okay... How am I supposed to have sprung this on you when you were right there?”

“Media manipulation. The pictures all show you on your own. I’ve told Phichit I was right there and that he should spread that to the Hamsters.” Yuuri kissed Viktor’s cheek and turned to Takeshi. “Is Yuuko okay?”

Takeshi smirked. “She’s okay. She was just not expecting Viktor to show up looking that hot. Loop may not like it, Viktor, but Yuuko and I do.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Return to Russia, start of school, and Junior Grand Prix. Meet some new people! <3
> 
> Timeline: September-October 2011

The reaction back at the rink was less shocked than Viktor had hoped, thanks to the internet, but still a delight. Mila loved it. “Watch your back, Yuuri, the fangirls are going to be all over him. He’s super-hot now!”

Yuuri just smiled. “I’m not worried. He was already super-hot, and if he were at all inclined to be with anyone but me, he had plenty of time and good excuse before.”

Viktor came flying over the ice and picked up Yuuri to hug him for that one. Yuuri shot a nervous glance at Yakov, who was determinedly staring out a window at… something out there. Yuuri hoped it was fascinating.

Yakov approved of the haircut, once he’d been reassured that there was no drama involved. Lilia did not, but she held her tongue, only giving her opinion when Viktor directly asked. Misha approved thoroughly of Viktor not having nearly as much hair to mess with before competitions, and had no real opinion of whether he looked better now or before. Georgi liked the shorter hair, too.

Yuri did not. “Your hair was gorgeous. And iconic. Why’d you get rid of it?”

“I was sick of messing with it. You don’t understand, you’re hair’s nowhere near that long, it is a pain to keep combed out and out of your face for competitions.”

“Well, if you’re too lazy to bother, fine. I’m gonna grow mine out like yours was.”

“You’ll see what a pain it is to take care of, then. I hope you like it enough to keep it!” Yuri stuck out his tongue and went back to skating.

Of course, the media had its horrible contingent. Naturally, there were rumors that Viktor had cut it because Yuuri was leaving him. The Hamsters were all over that. Another article said that Viktor had cut it off because Yuuri gave him an ultimatum: the hair goes or I do. Viktor responded to that one himself, commenting that Yuuri would never have done that, and that even if he were the kind of asshole who would, he’d loved Viktor’s long hair. There were several articles either in favor of the haircut or opposed to it, and his fan club had a fairly major – and public – war over it.

 

Classes started September 1st. Viktor, as he’d been saying for over a year, had signed up to study history, and Yuuri had settled on majoring in foreign languages. He was already fluent in English and Japanese, so he chose to focus on improving his French and learning Spanish and Italian. As part of his course, he was encouraged to study the history and culture of the countries, which made Viktor very happy as it meant they could take classes together at least some of the time. Viktor was already fluent in French, but studying a foreign language was encouraged, and he chose Italian.

The first day of classes, they both talked to their professors, explaining their competition schedules and when and why they would be missing the occasional class. For the most part, the professors were understanding, and in a couple cases, the professors were fans. They both promised to keep up with assignments and work hard even while traveling.

 

Seung Gil was competing in the first event of the Junior Grand Prix, and he took silver behind Bao Ping, a Chinese skater. Mila was in the second event, the Brisbane Cup in Australia. She called after the short program, where she was in third, full of excitement. “Yakov says I should be able to move up tomorrow! I should be on the podium! It’s been great being here, there’s all kinds of cool people. There’s an American boy who’s really cute. I didn’t get to talk to him yet, but I’m going to try tomorrow.” Mila came home with a silver medal behind the American girl, Cathy, and a couple new American friends.

Phichit had the third event, the Baltic Cup in Gdansk. Yuuri and Viktor convinced Yakov to let them go support Phichit. He was excited to see them. “You came!”

“We came!” Yuuri hugged Phichit. “Couldn’t strand you to have to make new friends, with Seung Gil not here.”

“Couldn’t have that!” The three of them went out and about in the city, enjoying the tourism around Phichit’s practice and competition schedules.

Phichit was third after the short program, and very confident that he could keep his spot on the podium in the free skate. Even he was surprised by his move up to first place, though.

Yuuri caught up to him after the interview. “That was amazing, Phichit! I take it things with Celestino are going better?” When Phichit had moved out there, he’d had some culture shock. Celestino worked him a lot harder than his old coach had in Thailand, and between that and the homesickness, he’d had a rough start to his time in America.

Phichit beamed. “Yeah! I’ve gotten used to the workload, even with school having started, and I can see it paying off. Aunt Rochana and her family have been awesome, thanks to you I already spoke pretty good English so when I started school it was easy to make friends, and that’s helped a lot. Besides, Ciao Ciao and I talked on the plane, and he said that he gets a lot of that kind of culture shock when he takes on a new skater. The only reason you didn’t go through it when you signed on with Yakov is that you worked yourself harder than any coach would have at your level. He was never mad at me for being lazy.”

“Ciao Ciao?”

Phichit clapped his hands to his mouth. “Oh my god, don’t tell him I call him that! It’s something he says a lot, and I was complaining to Paul about a really hard workout and called him that and it’s kind of caught on around the rink, but not where he can hear us. I use it out of love now, I promise!”

“He won’t hear it from us,” Viktor promised.

 

Phichit competed again two weeks later, and Yuuri was happy to take a break from working on his essay on the history of Western Europe to talk to him. He was a little surprised to see another boy with him. “Hi Yuuri! This is Leo de la Iglesia. He’s new in Juniors this year and you should see his skating! It’s beautiful! Leo, this is Katsuki Yuuri. He’s my best friend.” Leo waved, but he didn’t say anything. Phichit rolled his eyes, but smiled. “Dude. Get over the starstruck, Yuuri’s one of the coolest people you’ll ever meet. Viktor, too.”

“Vitya!” Yuuri turned back to his phone. “Hi, Leo. I had homework so I couldn’t watch live, but I’ll be sure to look for you when I watch Phichit. How’s the standings?”

“I’m first, Leo’s fourth. Celestino doesn’t think I have much to worry about as far as medaling, me and Mauno are fifteen points ahead of everyone else, so I’m in good shape to go back to the Finals. Leo took third in Brisbane, so he’s got a chance too!”

“Wow! Congratulations, Leo, I hope you make it.”

“Me too. It would be nice to see Mila again…”

“Oh, you’re the cute American boy Mila was talking about!” Viktor said as he cuddled up to Yuuri. “Hi!”

“Viktor Nikiforov. Don’t buy the press. He’s a giant dork,” Phichit said.

 

Phichit ended up with silver, Leo with another bronze. Phichit was in, Leo had a chance. Mila was excited, hoping to see him again.

Of course, she had to earn her own trip at her next competition. She did that, finishing third, and she came home full of stories about some Canadian kid who’d nearly gotten in a fight with an Israeli skater after a bad joke. Seung Gil broke it up before Gabriel could actually throw a punch, and ended up spending most of the rest of the day sitting with JJ. “He’s so obnoxious. JJ, not Seung Gil. Seung Gil can be a jerk, but he’s happy to leave you alone. JJ’s always in everyone’s face with his stupid ‘It’s JJ style’ thing. I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean.”

After the last event, Mila, Seung Gil, and Phichit were all going to Finals, and Leo was an alternate. Mila and Phichit were both disappointed Leo wouldn’t be there, but Mila was able to find some consolation in the fact that JJ wouldn’t be there either.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skate America, Part 1.
> 
> Timeline: October 19-21, 2011

It was warm in southern California, and Yuuri was very glad to get to the hotel and shed his heavy coat. Once they were checked in and settled, Yuuri and Viktor headed out to see who else was there. The Americans were, naturally, but none of their friends had made it there yet. They settled in with some reading for school to pass the time.

They didn’t have long to wait before their friends started arriving. Kamil and Nadiya came running over. “Hi guys!” After hugs, Kamil grinned. “I can’t believe I’m the only one in the men’s division who took the third assignment. I get why you guys and Misha and Georgi didn’t, but I thought Chris would.”

“Why did you? It’s a huge risk for no points,” Viktor said.

Kamil nodded. “I did it for the money. My sponsorships are good, but ten thousand dollars plus a shot at prize money is going to go a long way toward setting up a starter fund for Dítě. Worth the risk of another injury. I thought Chris would do it just for the fun of it.”

“Who’s Dítě?” Yuuri asked.

Kamil signed to Nadiya, who smiled and placed a hand on her belly. “Nadiya’s pregnant. We found out right before I had to give an answer. Dítě is Czech for child, and it’s what we’re calling him until we decide on a real name.”

“Don’t take too long deciding!” Yuuri looked over Kamil’s shoulder to see Yuuko and Mari. “Nicknames have a way of sticking. My girls are still having trouble figuring out they have names other than Axel, Lutz, and Loop. My mom’s the only one who uses them consistently.”

Mari rolled her eyes while Yuuko claimed hugs. “That’s your fault for naming them after skating jumps instead of calling them Ka, Ko, and Ku like Takeshi said you should. Those wouldn’t have stuck. Calling a kid ‘Child’ probably won’t either.”

Yuuko shrugged and giggled. “Yeah, I know. Still. Congratulations!”

 

Michele, Sara, and Jude joined them the next day after practice. “I’m surprised you’re here, Michele. I’d have thought you’d want to stay home and practice. You’re competing next week!” Viktor said.

Michele glanced at Sara. “I didn’t want to stay and practice by myself. Sara and I always go to each other’s competitions.”

Sara glared and crossed her arms. “I told you, I can take care of myself, and Coach Sabrina will be here if I do run into trouble. You should have stayed home.”

“Well, I didn’t. We’ve had this fight, and you didn’t change my mind.”

Sara glared, but she shut up. They had fun exploring the city. Jude and Yuuko wanted to go to Los Angeles, but got overruled when they realized it would take almost an hour just to get there. There wasn’t as much to do in Ontario, but they kept busy.

 

The men’s short program was the first event. Yuuri and Viktor spent the time between practice and competition working on their university work. They’d gotten classmates to record the lectures, and Viktor helped translate when Yuuri got stuck on something. When Michele and Sara learned that they were both learning Italian, they came over to help practice – and to add some words and phrases that their professors were unlikely to ever teach them. Michele tried to make Sara leave the room for that, but Sara wouldn’t go. “Che cazzo è, stronzo?” Michele was scandalized by her language, which he translated for Viktor and Yuuri as "What the fuck, asshole?", but he let her stay.

When they reported to the arena, Yuuri took off to get ready. His costume was based on a 17th century naval officer. It wasn’t exactly a major general, but considering he was becoming a pirate king, it felt more appropriate. Yakov looked him over once he was dressed. “How are you feeling?”

“Good. Nervous. I’m not chasing records, I just want to win, and I think I can do that with the program I have. No one ever picks up where they left off.”

The big news out of the first group was Cao Bin announcing he was back with a score in the high 70s, well above the next-highest score of 70. Aaron, on the other hand, started the second group off poorly. He struggled, falling twice and barely getting minimum rotation on his spins, ending up with a score in the low 60s. Yakov shook his head. “He’s struggled a lot the last few years. If he can’t get it together, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him retire after this season.”

Bryson Hallett did even worse, although he was never expected to do well. It still made Yuuri question himself as he took his starting pose. Gilbert and Sullivan was fun, but was it too fast? Would he run into trouble on the step sequence? He was thinking too hard about it, which led to him stumbling out of his quad toe loop. At least he didn’t fall or put a hand down. The combo spin went fine, and the step sequence showed just how good Yuuri was at them as he didn’t miss a beat despite the fast pace. His other two jumps were at the end of the program, a triple Lutz-triple toe loop combo and the triple axel. Both of those came down fine, and he finished with a flourish of his imaginary cutlass.

Yakov, naturally, had a lot to say about the quad. He had some criticisms of other things, too, but Yuuri was satisfied with his score of 84. It left him plenty of room to grow while giving him a good lead over Bin. Kamil cut into the lead, passing Bin’s score with an 80, but it wasn’t close enough, and Jude also did well, finishing in fourth for the day.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Free Skate and Yuuri's head is mean to him.

After the short program, they hung out in hotel rooms watching movies. Yuuri went to bed early, but he didn’t sleep very well. Bad dreams plagued him. Nothing specific or repeated, just nightmares that woke him up frequently. Viktor woke up with him a couple times, and he cuddled Yuuri tighter. “Do you need to talk about them?”

“No. They’re just annoying and weird dreams. This one, I got trampled by a herd of llamas.”

Viktor smiled. “Need a dragon to protect you?”

“Always!” Yuuri kissed Viktor quickly. “So lucky I have one who loves me.”

 

Yuuri still didn’t sleep well, and Yakov didn’t look pleased when Yuuri showed up not rested. “Anxiety or Viktor?”

“Anxiety. Viktor did his best to help me sleep. He did not keep me awake.”

Yakov relaxed a little. “Good. I was a bit worried that there’d be shenanigans, now that you’re married.”

“I have to skate today. Viktor knows better. When it’s him skating he may be less careful, but you know he’d never do anything to mess me up.”

“True. I’m counting on you to be responsible and make Viktor behave when it’s his turn.”

Yuuri snorted. “I’ll try.”

“All I can ask. How do you feel about your skate today?”

“I don’t know. Kinda nervous, because of the lack of sleep. Bad day to take risks, but I wasn’t planning on pushing things today anyway. I’ve got a decent lead over Kamil and Bin and a good base value. I should win.”

Yakov nodded. “Fair. Take it easy in warmups. Go through your jumps if you feel the need, but not too much.”

 

The first group didn’t provide much in the way of surprise – Aaron recovered a little, but not much. The second group started with Rory, who fell on a triple axel and dropped below Sachio and Ben. Jude did well, taking the lead, which Bin immediately took from him with a beautiful performance. Kamil had a good skate, but not good enough to catch Bin.

Yuuri was the last skater to take the ice. His costume was, obviously, a pirate outfit, minus the hat, eyepatch, and parrot. Almost right away, things started to slip, as he didn’t get the height he was used to on either of his first two jumps. The layback spin settled him down, and the triple axel was clean. He struggled again later, putting a hand to the ice on a triple Lutz, and just barely getting the last jump of a triple axel-triple toe loop-double toe loop combo landed. When he went up for his final jump – a quad toe loop-double toe loop combo – he had a bad feeling what was about to happen. He wasn’t surprised at all when he fell. Disappointed in himself, yes, but not surprised.

Yakov gave him hell, as he deserved, and Yuuri was rather disappointed in himself. His score worked out to 154, which put him ahead of Kamil, but not Bin. The silver medal was nice, but it wasn’t the gold Yuuri thought he could have had if he was just stronger. He was able to fake a good smile for the camera, and he was genuinely happy to see Bin back on top of his game, but he was disappointed in himself.

Viktor caught him before the press found their way to him and wrapped him up in a big hug. “Don’t let this get in your head, Yuuri. Second is still good. You’re still on track for the Finals, and you know you can do better. If anything, this shows how much better you are than almost everyone else.”

“Thanks, Vitya.” It didn’t help much. There wasn’t time for anything else, though. Reporters.

“Yuuri! You looked disappointed with your silver.”

“Cao Bin did very well and I’m thrilled to see him back to himself this season. He deserves that gold. I was more disappointed in myself – one fall, one near-fall, and several other jumps not going the way I’d wanted them to is never good. I can skate this program so much better, and I feel like I let down the people who are watching me.”

“Viktor, do you feel like Yuuri let you down?”

“Not at all! I don’t think his family or friends will, either, and I hope his fans will understand that everyone struggles from time to time. He’ll do better next time, I’m sure!”

“You and Viktor aren’t skating against each other this year. Was that a disappointment?”

“Yes and no. On the one hand, it guarantees that we can be there to support each other and watch each other skate, but on the other hand, we don’t end up in a situation where one of us keeps the other off the podium or out of the finals. We could do it, and whoever lost would celebrate the other’s accomplishment, but there are good things about not skating against each other.”

“Each of you has an event against Rykov. Are you looking forward to those?”

“Rykov’s a very good skater, one standing between me and the Grand Prix Finals. That’s all. It would be interesting to see a semi-Russian sweep in Japan, since Georgi will be there, too.”

“You’ve started university, we understand. Do you think that’s putting pressure on you that’s interfering with your skating?”

That was one Yuuri hadn't even thought of blaming. “No. It’s more difficult than high school, but I’m used to studying hard and keeping up with work while I skate. I’m enjoying my studies very much.”

 

The ladies’ short program was that evening, so they stayed to watch. Yuuko was the third skater up, and she looked nervous. Her score was good, but Yuuri was afraid it wouldn’t hold up. Sara was the first skater in group 2, and she did very well. Yuuri was relieved when her score came up and Yuuko was still in first, and then he felt a little bad about being relieved. By the end of the skating, Yuuko had dropped to third, with Sara fourth, behind Iona in first and a French skater in second.

After a late dinner, Yuuri called it an early night. He could leave the studying he’d planned to do that day until morning. This was not his idea, it was Viktor’s. “You don’t have skating at all tomorrow, we don’t have to be there early, there will be plenty of time in the morning, and you didn’t sleep well last night. Come to bed.”

“Ask me in French so I can tell myself I did something productive.”

Viktor did, so Yuuri got ready for bed instead of getting out his laptop. He didn’t sleep much better that night, which confused him. Viktor noticed when Yuuri got out of bed and started listening to one of the history lectures on the laptop. “Yuuri?”

Yuuri hit pause and took off the headphones. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong, but I can’t sleep. Is my screen too bright? I can go somewhere else.” He'd tried to aim the screen away from Viktor, but if Viktor was awake...

Viktor shook his head. “It’s fine. Are you still upset by how you skated?”

“I was awful! Yes, everyone has bad days, but that bad? I know, it’s good that I can skate badly and still be in good shape for the Finals, but I was doing twenty points better last year.”

“Not at your first competition this year. A lot of people start off slow.”

“This is the worst I’ve ever done in Seniors, except for that one year in Canada. Am I regressing?”

“No, you’re not. Even if you are going to have a bad year, look at Bin. He came back from a bad year.”

“Look at Aaron. He used to be a regular Finalist or at least alternate, and now he’s barely getting points in Grand Prix events.”

“Yuuri. Love. If you were regressing, you wouldn’t be considering adding a quad flip in Japan.”

“Maybe I focused too much on the flip and not enough on the program. I’m not doing a quad flip in Japan! If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to start practicing it for the Finals. If not… I’ll start practicing after Japan for Nationals.”

Viktor sat up and moved the laptop out of the way so he could straddle Yuuri’s lap. “Yuuri. When we get back, you’re going to do the routine once the way it is, to prove to yourself that you can, and then you are subbing in the quad flip. Playing it safe doesn’t work for you. You need something to push yourself toward.”

“But…”

“No. I’m sure Yakov will agree. Do you want to make it a bet?”

“For what?”

“I don’t know." Viktor put a finger to his lips. "If you land a quad flip in Japan, you get to pick where we go next summer? If you don’t, I get to make you watch a series of ninja movies I’ve been meaning to get around to.”

Yuuri giggled. “That’s hardly an equal bet, Viten’ka.”

“But is it motivational?”

“Yeah. Sure. You’re on, why not?”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wrapup of Skate America, Skate Canada, and the Tirnavia Ice Cup.

Yuuko thought their bet was hilarious. She was a little nervous about the free skate. “This one requires so much more stamina. I’m worried that I’m going to fade and not be able to get my last jump done, even if I did frontload it a lot.”

Yuuri hugged her. “You’ll be fine, Yuuko. You look great, and I’ve seen your free skate, it’s beautiful.”

“But I have to do well here, if I want to make the Finals! Kang-Hee and Saila are going to be in Japan, which is gonna make it hard to overcome anything less than second here.”

“Yuuko. Just do your best. You’ll be fine, I promise! If you don’t get to the Finals, that’s okay. You can, of course, but if you don’t it’s not a big deal!” Viktor hugged her too. “Go get ready. Remember, you’re strong, you’re resilient, you can come back from anything.”

Yuuko smiled and headed out to change. Yuuri and Viktor headed up into the stands, where they took a seat by Michele. “Sara’s freaking out. She wants a medal so badly. I know you two are going to be cheering for the Japanese women, but can we agree on Sara on the podium with them instead of Rachelle?”

“Sure! Sounds good to me. I’d love to see you on the podium next week with Georgi and Chris.” Paul would be good, too, but Yuuri felt no need to say that.

Things went well through the first eight skaters – they were beatable. Sara came out and had a good skate, giving her the lead. Yuuko, with Minako and Mari rinkside for her, pulled out a beautiful performance. Technically, it was not the best performance of the day, but her performance score was huge and put her up over Sara. Rachelle – Yuuri didn’t know if it was mistakes or on purpose, but there were a lot of single and double jumps, more than usual, which dropped her well below the leaders, all the way into fifth. Iona came out and started well, but a botched double axel and an underrotated triple flip sabotaged her, dropping her to third.

Yuuri could not get to Yuuko fast enough to give her a big hug. “I told you you’d be okay! You’re pretty well set up for Japan, wouldn’t you say?”

Yuuko giggled. “Yeah. Thanks for the confidence earlier, both of you.” Yuuko hugged Viktor as well, and giggled as he kissed her medal. “I should have gotten silver, though. Iona doesn’t usually have that much trouble, and I have no idea what happened to Rachelle. I need to get better before Japan.”

“So do I.” Yuuri leaned into Viktor’s hand on his back. “It’s not so much about the silver, Bin’s that good, I just can’t afford the mistakes.”

“You’ll figure it out, Yuuri. After all, you have to make Viktor go somewhere he will not find a ninja next summer!”

 

The exhibition skate was fun. Yuuri went full Hook, complete with an actual hook on his left hand and giant fake mustache. Viktor sat this one out, under the theory that this was the first time and Yuuri should have it to himself. There would be plenty of chances later for him to play with it.

 

Yuuri divided his time on the ice between working on the quad flip on its own, and working it into his program. Viktor focused mainly on his program, although he didn’t abandon his quad Lutz completely. Yuri had to be dragged off the ice to go do other things – he was getting very nervous about his competition, and even the smallest mistake was frustrating.

Yuuri was the most successful at getting Yuri to leave. Yakov was glad to see it – it meant Yuuri wasn’t on the ice obsessing over his own need to improve. It was good for them both.

Yuri was not happy with not working, but he could suck it up. At least going to Slovakia, he wouldn’t lose too much time to travel. Everyone but Georgi and Lilia came to see him off, and that was only because they were already on their way to Canada. They didn’t understand why Yuri wasn’t more excited.

Yuri was excited, he just didn’t show it the way Mila had. He wasn’t bouncing all over the room or talking a million kilometers an hour. He was going through his program in his head. Or thinking about tigers. He watched tigers on his phone a lot. Sasha and Vanya came with him, of course. He might get a few things thrown, but probably not tigers. Yet. He’d wanted to bring Potya, but Yakov said no.

Yakov also gave him a very stern lecture about not going off without him. He didn’t have to worry. There wasn’t a zoo with cats, and Yuri didn’t care about the historical shit like Viktor did. Still, being told not to go out made him want to go just to see if he could get away with it. He was just about to go when his phone rang. His mom.

“Hi, sweetie! Good luck. When do you compete?”

“The 28th. Short program and free skate both. Yakov’s still trying to figure out if there’s any way he can get to Missis… Missau… to Skate Canada in time to be there for Georgi’s free skate.”

“Can he?”

“I don’t know. Probably, with time zones, but he’d have to get me on a train back and make sure Viktor knew to come get me at the station, and if there were delays…”

“Well, at least he’s there with you, right?”

“Only because Georgi made him.”

“Yurotchka, sweetie. The only person who has ever made Yakov Feltsman do anything he didn’t want to is Lilia. Yakov may have felt like he should have gone with Georgi, but I promise, he wants to be there with you. I’m a little surprised Viktor and his husband didn’t come.”

“Viktor competes next week, Yakov never lets anyone go anywhere that close to a competition, and Yuuri’s gonna stay with his husband, especially if it means he can practice properly for his next competition.”

“If you say so, sweetie. Are you going to come out for Christmas again?”

“I don’t know. Skate Helena’s mid-January, so it might be better for me to come earlier in December and get back right after Nationals.”

“Well, I’ll talk to Yakov and see what works.”

 

There weren’t a lot of novices at this competition. There was only one group, and Yuri was second in it. Yakov told him to make this easy, he’d be okay sticking with doubles, and after the first skater barely landed a single axel, Yuri decided to listen to Yakov. He started off with a double flip, and enjoyed prancing around as a mischievous cat. It was real fun, the most fun he’d had while skating, and when he hit his double salchow-double loop combo, he couldn’t help the cheer. He’d enjoyed that.

Yuri squirmed a bit under Yakov’s criticisms, but his score was good. 33. It put him way in the lead, and that held up through the group. The next person down had a 24.

At this point, Viktor or Yuuri would probably go try to make friends. Yuri didn’t bother, and none of the others approached him, either. He just went up in the stands to wait for Yakov to call him for the free skate and played on his phone. When the battery started to run low, he went out into a hallway and found an outlet.

He was last in the free skate, where with his program he could easily win. His tiger-stripe bodysuit had made everyone at the rink roll their eyes, but he loved it. His first jump, a double axel, went well, but then he fell on what was supposed to be a double salchow-double loop. He got right back up, but the damage was done, and Yuri was furious with himself. He could do a triple salchow with no problem and here he was fucking up a double? Piglet and his old man would probably tell him that it was okay, that everyone made mistakes and he was probably nervous, but Yuri didn’t accept that. When he came to his last jump, which was supposed to be a double Salchow, he decided that Yakov could tell him off for it later, he was doing a triple. He landed it, too.

Yakov did tell him off for it immediately. “I was really hoping Yuuri would be a good influence on you, a stabilizing influence against Vitya and your mother. You should listen to your coach.”

Yuri just rolled his eyes and ignored him. The score was good – over fifty. He’d won.

 

Yakov did not end up going out to Canada. Georgi didn’t miss him much, if the gold medal was anything to go by, and Chris took the silver. Michele just barely beat Paul out for bronze.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brief stop in Russia before it's out to China.

They only had a few days at home before Yakov was leaving again, but he made every moment of that count, making Yuri pay for his unauthorized triple. He spent a lot of time in the tutoring room, or with Lilia working on his dance skills, or just sitting and watching the others. He didn’t spend much time on the ice at all. Yuri sucked it up, but he was seething, and looking forward to Yakov leaving so that Georgi would be in charge. Viktor would’ve been better, but at least it wasn’t Yakov.

He hadn’t counted on Lilia, though. She continued to work Yuri harder on dance than usual, and the tutor kept him in the classroom longer than usual. It was annoying. He could at least go home with Yuuri – he was kind of resentful toward Yuuri, too, but Yuuri at least would let him sit in his room with his music and his cat videos – except at dinnertime, but Yuri was happy to come out and eat. Yuuri was a good cook and he kept his moping about Viktor’s absence to a mostly reasonable level when Yuri was around, at least.

 

Viktor didn’t bother keeping his moping under control on the plane. Misha moped right along with him. Yakov had to ask. “Vitya I get, he’s got the separation thing, but why are you so upset? You and Emiliya have never been like that.”

Misha sighed. “Nikasha wouldn’t kiss me goodbye. He’s mad at me for leaving him.”

“He’ll have to get used to it," Yakov reassured him. "It doesn’t make it easier. He’ll be over it by the time you get home, most likely.”

“Does it get easier with practice?”

Yakov shook his head. “With Rorka, the only thing that made it better was that she outgrew that stage. Nika will get there. Be glad you’re not a coach.”

“Yet, anyway.”

“Are you thinking about coaching after retiring, then?” Viktor was just as surprised as Yakov. He'd never heard Misha say anything about his retirement plans, other than enjoying his wife and children.

“I’m not sure. I don’t want to try to coach at this level, but I’d like to work with kids. I’d say like Yuri, but…”

“I don't think there are any other kids like Yuri, and if there aren’t, that would be a blessing.” Misha chuckled at Yakov’s comment. “I think you’d be good at it, and it would be less travel. You were good with Mila when she was younger. Are you going to try to coach Nika when he’s older?”

Misha shrugged. “I’m going to teach him to skate, but he may not want to stick with it very long. If he does have the talent and interest, we’ll see how things go then.”

 

Viktor still missed Yuuri, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him from exploring Shanghai. Misha was the only one of his friends who was there. He knew most of the others, at least. While he and Misha were out exploring, they ran into Lukas and Yuhan, the two youngest skaters in the competition, out exploring together. Lukas was a bit starstruck, and he asked for their autographs. Once they had complied, Misha invited them to come hang out with them. The four of them had a good time roaming the city.

Viktor called Yuuri after dinner to tell him about Shanghai and his new friends. “You probably won’t get to meet Lukas until Worlds, but you’ve skated against Yuhan a few times.”

“Phichit knows Lukas. They’re social media friends." Yuuri laughed. "Funny, you’d think someone who knows Phichit would know that you’re more dork than god and not have a problem with approaching you.”

“You’d think! How’s practice going?”

“Good. I’m going to try the quad flip in Japan unless something goes wrong.”

“Good luck! I’d love to see it.”

“Do well so that you can see it live instead of on TV.”

“Of course! I miss you too much not to do everything I can to get to go next week.”

 

Viktor managed to draw first, Misha last. Yakov was somewhat amused by that. “I’d like to see the top two performances be first and last. Considering what Aaron did two weeks ago, I don’t know who here would prevent that, so go out there, take care of business, and don’t do anything stupid, Vitya.”

“I’m not going to do anything stupid! I mean, a lot of skaters would say that trying a quad toe loop-triple loop combo is stupid, but I can do it and you know it, so it’s not stupid for me.”

Yakov just shook his head, and Viktor headed out to the ice. After warmups, he stayed out. Getting in the mood for the performance was easy. There wasn’t a pole out on the ice, but Viktor could create the illusion of one with his choreography. The combo went well, as did his triple axel. He struggled a bit on his step sequence, getting a little tangled up in his footwork, but pushed through it to finish strong with a triple Lutz. 

Yakov was, overall, pleased with Viktor’s performance, although he heard quite a bit about the steps. 83 was a good score for this point in the season, and one likely to hold up, unless Misha took it from him. No one else in group 1 got above 75. In group 2, Sachio got up to 79. Aaron fell twice during his routine, once on an attempted quad salchow and once on his triple axel, dropping him to a 65. Misha ended things on a good note, at least, getting up close to Viktor with an 81.

“Viktor! What does Yuuri think of your routine?”

“Yuuri said he hopes that when we compete against each other at Worlds and hopefully at the Finals, he won’t have to skate right after me. He thinks he’d be a little distracted.” Viktor winked as giggles erupted.

“So you did consult him before deciding to do it?”

“I told him what I was thinking and asked if he was okay with it, and he said yes. Normally I don’t need anyone’s approval but Yakov’s, but for this, I thought I should give my husband a chance to speak up if it would make him uncomfortable.”

“Still not tired of that phrase, I take it?”

“I fully expect to still love to say it fifty years from now! Thankfully my husband feels the same way, so he’s not going to make me stop.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Free skate and travel and university and the best flightmate ever!!!

The free skate the next day started slowly. Aaron continued to fail to live up to his previous standards, although he would likely improve his standing from the short program. Lukas ran into nerves for his first senior event and missed or downgraded several jumps, dropping him below Aaron. Ichizo and Yuhan traded places, as did Su and Sachio, guaranteeing Su a medal for China. Misha skated beautifully, earning a 163 and the lead, and, Viktor hoped, silver.

That would be up to him. The Latin dancing was easier to translate to the ice, and his costume was eyecatching. His bright blue shirt was designed to mimic the plunging V-necks of many Latin costumes, although with nude fabric filling in the V for warmth and to satisfy ISU rules, and he wore black trousers. He started off strong, with a quad flip-double toe loop combo, followed by his combination spin. He ran into a bit of trouble when he hit the quad salchow and underrotated it. He recovered well in the step sequence, but then overrotated a triple salchow. He was already dreading the triple salchow-triple loop combo, and sure enough, he bobbled it. He could already predict what Yakov would have to say about him missing all three salchows. Because of that, he tripped himself up a bit on the choreographic sequence. This was not going to be a good score.

Sure enough, Yakov was livid about the Salchows. “The first triple, I can understand, you underrotated the quad so you overcompensated and overrotated the triple. Since when do you let things get in your head like that and mess you up more? Shake it off!” It wasn’t anything Viktor wasn’t already telling himself, so he ignored the lecture to wait for the score. 167 was not great, but it was enough for the win.

“Viktor! Do you have any comment on reports that you’ve dropped out of university?”

“Yes, I do! They are silly. Yuuri is competing next week, so he stayed home to keep training, and since he’s there he’s going to class. I, clearly, could not be in class or study group recently, because I am here. I’ll be back in class next week, after the NHK.”

“Not this week?”

“I get home Tuesday and we’re leaving for Japan on Wednesday. No chance.”

“How do you keep up?”

“The same way any other athlete does – I’ve talked to my professors, they know why I’m missing so much, I get my assignments in advance, get notes and video from a classmate – Yuuri, this week, for the two classes we have together – turn in assignments and ask questions through email or the class website, and make up tests or quizzes that aren’t online when I get back.”

 

For his exhibition skate, Viktor was skating to SexyBack. Mila had chosen it for a freestyle game, and after he was done laughing at the memory of almost choosing it for Yuuri when Yakov was scouting, he had a lot of fun with it. Yuuri had nearly died of embarrassment when Viktor explained why he spent the first thirty seconds of the song standing in place and laughing, and Yakov just snorted. “You know I’d have murdered you, right?”

“And I’d have deserved it. I had no business giving Yuuri that song back then.”

It fit his theme perfectly, and he’d had a great deal of fun playing with the choreography and costume. Lots of flexing and posing, after stripping off his jacket, and later his button-down shirt, leaving just a tight tank top and tight pants. Yuuri loved it, and the crowd went wild. Yakov was just grateful he was doing it now instead of the first time he’d tried something like this, back when he was fifteen. 

 

Viktor and Misha flew back alone. Yakov was going straight to Celje, where he would meet Lilia and Yuri. Yuri was very excited about the competition – it would be a chance to redeem himself, and this one was part of the European Criterium. Sponsors would be watching. Misha got to have a joyful reunion with a very happy Nika. Yuuri had brought the dogs to the airport, and Viktor was nearly knocked off his feet by two very happy poodles.

In the morning, before flying out to Japan, Viktor dropped by the university – he had a test to take for one of his classes, and his professor suggested that he come do it then. It didn’t go as well as he’d have liked, but it went well enough. He could have used some more preparation for the essay, which is what he’d planned to do on the flight to Japan. Instead, he started preparing for the exam in his other history class, the one he and Yuuri were taking together, which would be the Friday after they got back from Japan. After a connection in Moscow, they picked up Sasha and Rykov. They had both started university this year, too – Sasha studying art, Rykov studying law.

Viktor smirked. “Law, huh? And here I thought you’d improved yourself from the slimy bastard you used to be.”

Rykov laughed, but Sasha smacked Viktor. As the siblings started bickering, Rykov looked over to Yuuri. “Did you have trouble going from being a normal person who had to budget carefully to afford your skates, let alone rink fees, to being a Nikiforov soulmate, or am I just being unreasonable?”

"You're not being unreasonable," Yuuri reassured him. “It's hard to change that mindset of every penny counts. I’m still having trouble with it. If I hadn’t been Viktor’s soulmate, I don’t know how I could have afforded to be a Grand Prix competitor. Of course, if I hadn’t been Viktor’s soulmate, I’d never have been skating for Yakov. I might not be in the Grand Prix right now.”

“Does it get easier?”

“A little. It helps now that I’ve got good enough sponsors that I could pay my coaching fees and equipment and travel costs and afford a place to live and food to eat even without Viktor, and that we’ve been together so long that he’s got me thoroughly convinced that the only thing that could drag him away from me is death or if I made him go.”

"How long did that take?"

"Years. I have anxiety, and for the first couple years, my brain kept trying to tell me Viktor would get bored with a dime-a-dozen skater, or impatient with his underage soulmate, and move on."

"I don't have that... but I spent years being an asshole to you, which means Sasha and I didn't get off to a very good start. Thanks."


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladies' skates and short programs. Yuri digs his hole even deeper.

They met up with Minako at the airport. Lilia was planning to come out after Yakov got to Celje to act as Georgi’s coach, but for now, Minako was there for both of them. Yuuko and Mari had gone ahead to the hotel – the triplets had been very fussy lately, and Yuuko was in desperate need of a nap. At the hotel, Skye came running up to them once they got to the hotel, with hugs for Viktor and Yuuri. “I’m so glad to see you guys!”

“Hey!” Viktor hugged back. “Paul’s not here, I assume?”

“No, he’s competing in Paris.” Skye pouted. “And then I’m in Russia, so I don’t even get to go to Paris. Maybe next year.”

“I’m sorry. Paris is amazing and I hope you get to go soon!” Yuuri hugged Skye and headed off to help Yakov with check-in.

Michele was there, too, and he’d managed to get Sara to come with him despite her competition in Paris. Sara didn’t say much when Viktor asked why she’d come, just blamed it on their coach and her brother. “We’re going straight from here to Paris. I don’t know how well I’ll do there.”

Exploring the city was fun – they of course checked out the Olympics venues, along with several historical sites that Viktor was interested in. They had a pretty big group – Sasha, Rykov, Yuuko, Mari, Skye, Michele and Sara, Jude, and Georgi and Anya. It was good to hang out with everyone and get to see cool stuff.

The first day of competition, the men were the only ones who didn’t compete. Anya and Christov did well in their short dance, finishing the day in first, and Viktor and Yuuri went to watch the ladies’ skate. Skye was in the first group, and her short program was a lot of fun – skating to Disney’s “Kiss the Girl” in a mermaid-inspired dress. It was good enough for second, behind Kang-Hee. Saila took second from her. Yuuko was the next-to-last skater, and she was much less nervous this time. Her score was not quite up to her personal best, but it was much better than it had been in America. It was good enough for third, missing Saila by a few tenths.

Yuuko was happy with how she did. “I still need to improve, but this is so much better. Saila has a tendency to fizzle in the free skate, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s Kang-Hee, me, and Skye on the podium.”

 

The next day, ice dance went first. Anya and Christov took silver, setting themselves up well for a trip to the Finals. The men were up for their short program after the pairs. Jude drew the first skate, and started things off well. Michele did extremely well, beating Jude by not quite a point. Rykov, on the other hand, struggled and finished well below Jude. At the start of the second group, Florentin beat Rykov. Yuuri walked out with Georgi, since they were performing back to back. Georgi had a very good skate, giving him the lead.

With less on his mind, Yuuri started out much better than he had in America. His quad toe loop went fine. He still did well on his step sequence, showing off a little, and he relaxed and got into the performance. He ran into a slight bobble with his jump combo, but nothing disastrous, and finished strong with his triple axel.

Yakov was much happier with Yuuri, and Yuuri was much happier with himself. The judges were also much happier, and they rewarded him with a score over 90. Neither of the last two skaters were likely to beat him, and neither did. Yuuri was in first, Georgi second, both with huge leads over Michele in third.

“Yuuri, you just made putting up a score over 90 look easy. Considering how few skaters have ever done that, how do you feel about it?”

“I’m always grateful to see my hard work rewarded by the judges. It’s not easy. It’s long hours of practice and training and resting.”

“What do you think the chances of going over a hundred are?”

“For me? Not very good, not this year. I can improve my program, yes, but I don’t think I’ll get up to 100. I’m not expecting to take my record back this year. Maybe next year.”

“Viktor, your thoughts on that?”

“Yuuri’s always welcome to come challenge me for records! I’d be surprised to see anyone break 100 in the next couple years. Eventually, one of us will do it.”

“By one of us do you mean skaters in general, or you and Yuuri specifically?”

“Both! Some skater sometime will be the first to break 100, and I expect that Yuuri and I will both be skating long enough that we’ll each do it at least once. Chris already surprised me by being the first to a quad Lutz, so I’m not going to even try to guess who will break 100 first. I’d love for it to be me or Yuuri, but for all I know, it could be Michele, or even someone who’s in juniors now.”

“What if it’s Rykov?”

“Then I’ll be happy to see the record stay with Russia.”

They got done with the press in time to go watch the second group of the ladies’ free skate. Skye’s free skate was to another Disney song, “A Whole New World”, which she did very well with. Yuuko once again came out strong with her free skate, and did well enough to guarantee herself gold or silver. Kang-Hee, unsurprisingly, took the gold, but that still left Yuuko with two silver medals and a confirmed spot in the Finals. Kang-Hee’s second gold meant that she was going as well.

Yuuko was super excited by the opportunity to skate in the Finals, after sitting out a year for triplets. “I don’t even care if I finish last, just skating in the Finals is going to be a big deal! I hope you two are there with me!”

 

Meanwhile, in Celje, Yuri prepared for his first European Criterium event. Yakov was keeping a careful eye on him. “Yuri. I don’t want to see any triples today.”

“Why not? I can do them.”

“You can, but I was watching the others at practice, and you don’t need them. Without a triple, you’ll be able to get second, and I think you’ll make it up over Emil in the free skate.”

“So with a triple, I should be able to get first, and not have to worry about outdoing Emil in the free skate.”

“And you know what the consequences of disobeying your coach are, now. Stick to doubles.”

“I… fine.” Yuri crossed his arms. He’d obey the old man, but he’d do it his way.

When Yuri took the ice, there weren’t any scores over 30. The teasing cat was fun to play, and Yuri’s first two jumps – a double flip and a double axel – went well. After his combo spin, he glanced over to Yakov, who was scowling at him. Well, Yakov had said not to do a triple, so Yuri wasn’t going to do a triple. Yakov never said anything about not trading out the double Salchow that was planned for a double Lutz for more points. Yuri checked as he came to a stop. Yakov looked furious.

“You said stick to doubles, I stuck to doubles.” Yuri crossed his arms and took a seat in the Kiss and Cry.

Yakov didn’t say anything at all to him. Now Yuri was a little nervous – radio silence was not Yakov’s style. He’d expected to get yelled at, he was prepared to deal with harsh and picky critique. He was not prepared to deal with silence. His score was good – it could’ve been better with a triple, but 36 was fine. Yakov stood up and walked off without a word. Yuri followed.

Yakov finally said something when they got back to the hotel. “Don’t leave the hotel by yourself. If you want to go out for dinner, call me.” He walked off without another word.

Yuri went up to his room. Given his options, it didn’t take him long to decide. He called Viktor. It was late, but since Viktor didn’t have to skate the next day, he should be okay with staying up.

Viktor picked up right away. “What’s wrong, Yuri?”

“Other than telling me to stay in the hotel, Yakov hasn’t talked to me since I skated.”

“Wow. I didn’t get that until I was eleven. He’s pissed, Yuri. Whatever you did, he’s at the point where he’s trying to decide if it’s worth it to keep coaching you. He’ll probably decide it is, he never gave up on me, but you should really not push your luck tomorrow. Do exactly what he tells you, and he’ll come around.”

“Why won’t he let me do triples? I can do the toe loop and salchow every single time in practice, and you’ve helped me get my flip to good enough to take the risk. Lutz, no, and axel, I haven’t even started attempting yet, but why can’t I?”

“In the short program? As good as your spins are, you shouldn’t need a triple. No one expects you to win gold. You should have no trouble getting on the podium.”

“But…”

“Harder jumps put more stress on your body. You’re more likely to injure yourself, and at your age, an injury that Yuuri or Georgi or I could shrug off could have much more serious consequences for you. All the stress we put on our bodies adds up, and Yakov doesn’t want to see you retire at twenty-two because your bones can’t take it anymore. If Yakov thinks it’s best for you not to do triples, then don’t.”

Yuri scowled. That was not the answer he wanted. It was too reasonable. He couldn’t argue with it. That really wasn’t Viktor’s fault, though. “Fine, whatever, I won’t do triples unless Yakov says I can.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Free Skates!

The free skate was the only competition on the last day, with the exhibition skate scheduled for that evening. Yuuri mostly ignored the first group, but when Rykov went out for warmups, he stopped stretching to watch. He did well, taking first at the end of the group, but Yuuri wasn’t sure how well it would hold up.

In the second group, Jude put up a brilliant skate, probably the best Yuuri had ever seen from him. Michele couldn’t catch him. Yuuri and Minako walked out with Georgi and Lilia. Georgi fell on his first jump, and none of the rest of his jumps looked quite right. Lilia’s frown deepened the more she watched. “I think he’s hurt.”

“He’s still skating…” Yuuri said.

“Not a major injury, but something is bothering him.” Lilia shook her head. “Yuuri, don’t dwell on Georgi. You’ll be fine. Just be careful.”

Yuuri did his best to push Georgi’s disappointment out of his mind, which became harder when they announced his score. He was in third – only one of Yakov’s skaters could medal. Instead, Yuuri focused on his bet. If he didn’t get the quad flip, he had to watch an entire series of ninja movies. The rest of the program was all downhill from there, so if he could just get through the quad flip, he’d be okay.

He got through the quad flip, although he touched a hand to the ice after. Triple loop, good, layback spin, great. It wasn’t until after his step sequence that he was able to think about anything but “NO NINJA MOVIES.” That realization caused him to bobble his triple Lutz, but he calmed himself down after the combo spin. From there on, he had a good routine, although he bobbled the last combo just a little. Not as badly as he had in America.

Minako hugged him as soon as he was off the ice. “You’re only the second skater to land a quad flip! That’s amazing!”

Yuuri shrugged. “I had the first one teaching me, so that helps. And now I get to pick where we go on vacation. Any suggestions?”

“I’ll think about it and get back to you. Right now, you need to be ready to go get your gold medal and then get dressed for your exhibition.”

Yuuri was about to protest when his score came up. 178 was huge, especially for this point in the year, but between two quads and his strong presentation, he wasn’t surprised. He hoped to get that over 180 for the Finals, but for now, it was good enough for gold and the first guaranteed spot. Georgi, with a 1st and a 4th, had a good chance, and Michele and Jude both had a chance to get in.

Viktor was right there at the side of the rink to kiss Yuuri’s medal the second he came off the ice. “Finals! Good for you!”

“Thanks. Have you heard anything about Georgi? Lilia said she thought he was hurt…”

“It’s nothing serious. He’s getting checked out just in case there’s some underlying damage, but he expects that if he makes the Finals he’ll be able to skate.” Viktor looked around and dropped his voice to a whisper. “Don’t tell Yakov or Lilia but Anya said he overexerted himself a little last night celebrating with her.”

“That’s… OH.” Yuuri blushed as it hit him what Viktor was implying. “Wow. That’s… not quite Chris’s birthday levels of impressive, but still.”

For the exhibition, Viktor joined Yuuri this time. He’d found the most ridiculous crocodile costume Yuuri had ever seen, including big puffy lips and a bow on its head. When Viktor came out on the ice, Yuuri took one look at him and fell over laughing. He recovered nicely, and they had a good chase, but Yuuri collapsed again as soon as they were off the ice. “Where in the world did you find that thing?”

“Costume shop. Online. Isn’t it amazing?” Viktor twirled and spread his arms. “I think it might actually be an alligator, but who’s going to get that picky?”

 

Yakov called Yuri to the rink early. His first instinct was to argue, to tell Yakov that he still had over an hour before he was expected to be there and it wouldn’t take him that long to get changed and ready, but Viktor’s words came back to him. If Yakov kicked him out… he’d lose everything, and he knew it. He’d probably have to go to New York and live with fucking Boris. Maybe his grandpa would let him come home to Moscow with Potya, he was old enough to look after himself for the most part and could work odd jobs to help with money, but no one would want to work with a skater who was too much of a handful for Yakov Feltsman.

He met Yakov in the lobby ten minutes later. Yakov was scowling. “What took you so long?”

“I thought we weren’t leaving for another half hour so I didn’t have my bag packed up, and then the elevator took forever. I’m sorry.”

Yakov nodded and walked out to the cab. Yuri followed in silence. At the rink, Yakov walked him up to Emil and his coach. Emil grabbed Yuri’s hand and dragged him off to talk. “I’ve heard so much about you from Mila! We didn’t get to hang out much yesterday, but your coach said he’d make sure you were here early today. Mila says you have a cat. And a baby sister. Do you have pictures?”

Yuri pulled out his phone. Potya, he had pictures of. Natasha, he realized suddenly, he only had one of. “This is my sister. I don’t see her much, she’s my half-sister and her dad’s an asshole, but she’s pretty cute.”

“She is cute! I always wanted a baby brother but my mom said one of me was already all she could handle.”

“And this is Potya. His full name’s Puma Tiger Scorpion, but that’s kind of a mouthful so I call him Potya. You like cats?”

“They’re all right. I prefer dogs, but that’s just because I spend a lot of time hiking and stuff, and cats aren’t so good for that. Right now, all I’ve got are some fish and a python.”

“You have a python?”

“Yeah!” Emil pulled out his phone and showed Yuri a picture of a yellow and brown snake. “I call it Charlie, after Charlie Weasley. Mom won’t let me get a real dragon, so I’m practicing with the snake first.”

Yakov came to get Yuri when it was time to get ready. Yuri decided not to complain about the forced hangout time. Emil wasn’t totally awful, anyway. No one who had a python could be completely terrible. Yakov didn’t say anything about not doing triples today, but he didn’t say Yuri could, either. Given that the only person close to Yuri was Emil, Yuri decided to play it safe. He was still doing the double axel, but he kept to doubles. He didn’t fall, like he had before, so when he got to the last jump, he went for the double salchow. Time to face judgment.

Yakov talked to him, this time. Told him off for all kinds of picky things. And then… “I thought you’d do a triple or two. Why didn’t you?”

“You didn’t say I could. I didn’t need them.” Yuri’s score popped up – one hundredth of a point lower than in Trnava. He'd be going home with silver to Emil's gold.

Yakov nodded. “You didn’t need them. Hopefully, you’ve learned that.”

“Yeah. If you say no triples, then I won’t do them in competitions.”

“Good. Glad to hear that.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri makes a Very Important Decision, results from France, and travel to Moscow.

Viktor was very grateful for the week off from competition. Traveling to four competitions in six weeks was wreaking havoc with his studies, even with Yuuri's help and help from others with keeping up with notes and assignments, and some of his classmates pretended to not recognize him when he got back to class. He was still training full-time, but he spent a good deal of his free time at the school. The primary exception was getting with Yuuri and Yuri to watch the Trophee de France, where a lot of people in Grand Prix contention were skating. Misha won, securing himself a spot, and Bin took third to earn a spot as well. Kamil’s second tied him with Georgi. They both had a chance, but it would depend on the Rostelecom Cup. Chris struggled, finishing in fifth and out of the Finals this year. On the ladies' side, Sara took third for her second bronze and a chance to go to Finals.

Yuri was off his probation, and Yakov was letting him practice like normal. He was therefore frustrated when he’d been on the ice for about forty-five minutes when Yakov called him over. “Go get changed.”

Yuri bit back the refusal, but he couldn’t stop himself from the question. “Why?”

Luckily, Yakov didn't seem to mind. “Because there’s someone who’ll be here in half an hour who wants to talk to us, and you need to be presentable for it.”

“It’s not Mama or Boris, is it?”

Yakov shook his head with a sardonic smile. “If it were Irishka I wouldn’t get you off the ice, she’s a skater, she knows the drill. I see no need to make you make yourself presentable for Boris.”

Yuri headed off then with a small smirk. So Yakov didn’t like Boris either. He took a quick shower and got dressed. His hair was enough longer than it had been in August to notice the difference in drying it, and it was somewhat irritating. Not irritating enough to cut, though. He liked it a lot.

The meeting turned out to be with a representative of a sports equipment manufacturer, wanting to sponsor Yuri to advertise their kids’ products. Yakov didn’t let Yuri say much during the meeting, but Yuri listened attentively to Yakov’s negotiations. He was determined to learn to do this himself. Sometimes, he didn’t think Yakov’s questions were important, and he was somewhat impatient with some of Yakov’s demands, but in the end, both of them were looking to Yuri. “Well, Yuri? What do you say?”

What did they think he was going to say? “I say sign the contract, I’ll do it. And thank you for this opportunity," he added as he remembered his manners.

Yakov nodded. “When you get this polished and run by your legal team, send it over. I’ll run it by his mother and get it back to you signed.”

“All right. Yuri, do you want a special color of blade?”

No hesitation. Normal blades were fine, but if they were asking if he wanted something, he wanted something _cool_. “Black.”

“We can do that.” The rep shook Yuri’s hand and left.

“Thanks, Yakov.”

“You’re not mad that I wouldn’t let you talk?”

“Not this time. Eventually I want to do this myself, but you’re the one with the experience. Besides, who’s going to listen to a ten-year-old?”

“You approve of the job I did?”

Yuri shrugged. “There’s a couple things I’d have been willing to sacrifice for better money, but you know what you’re doing.”

“Good. It’s up to you. Do you want to get back on the ice or over to ballet?”

“Ice,” Yuri said. Then his brain caught up to him and he thought about what Lilia would do if he were late to ballet. “No, wait. Ballet. If I can get Katsuki to come with me, can I come back after?”

Yakov barked a laugh. “Yes. Don’t work yourself too hard, but you can come make up the time.”

 

Georgi, Yuuri, and Yuri went with Viktor and Yakov to Moscow. Georgi was coming to watch Anya. Yuri was torn about going – he was missing skating right before a tournament, but on the other hand, Yakov was planning to leave Moscow straight for Dortmund, and he could see his grandfather. Grandpa was enough to swing the balance to going along.

Kamil was already there, having come straight from France. “Hi guys! I’m kinda wishing I hadn’t signed up for this. It’s a lot.”

“Yeah, it is, but you can handle it. I have faith in you!” Viktor hugged him. “How’s Nadiya? Is she here?”

“No, at her checkup before we were going to leave for Paris, they found something they didn’t like in her bloodwork. They’re saying it’s most likely preeclampsia or something equally treatable, but it’s not the first complication, so they’ve got her on bed rest.”

“Oh, is that why Anatolij skipped the exhibition in Paris? To look after Nadiya?” Viktor asked.

“Exactly. She called after his free skate to ask him to come home and tell me not to. I want to make Finals, but if I don’t, at least there’s a good side. I’m a little worried about Worlds, she’s due at the end of March…”

Viktor hugged him again. “We’ll be sorry to miss you, but of course you should be there for your wife and child.”

 

Skye and Paul were there as well, and Chris came with Masumi and Jolanda. Viktor hugged his friend. “I’m sorry you had such trouble in Paris! We’re going to miss you at the Finals.”

Chris hugged back enthusiastically. “Not necessarily! If Masumi and Jolie make it, I’m going with them. It’s not the same as skating in them, but I’ll probably be there.”

Rykov was in an unusually good mood, too, which was explained when he introduced them to his little brother Dmitri. “I haven’t seen him since I moved to Moscow for training! I missed him a lot, and now he’s wanting to come to Moscow for school.”

Hanging out in Moscow was fun. They did a lot of the tourism this time, because so many of their group hadn’t been before, with Sasha taking the lead as tour guide. Yuri didn’t go, choosing instead to hang out with his grandpa.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rostelecom Cup!

The ladies’ skate was the first event. Yuuri and Viktor went with Paul to watch Skye, who finished in third place after the free skate, behind Russia’s top skater Raisa and Japan’s skater Sako. Skye was close, and determined to get herself up into at least second the next day – if she got second, she would be going to the Finals.

The men’s short program got off to a slow start. There were lots of falls, and by the time Kamil went at the end of the first group, no one had even broken 70. Kamil at least did well, earning a 79.

Viktor was the first one up in group 2. Yuuri, sitting with his friends, found it a little difficult to watch. It wasn’t that he was getting turned on, or even that he wasn’t the only one in the general area getting turned on. His husband was sexy and he didn’t care who knew it or responded to it. It was just a little awkward sitting next to Chris squirming as Masumi whispered to him. It was probably just as well that Yuuri couldn’t hear what Masumi was saying.

Viktor started group 2 off on a good note. His jumps were clean, and he improved his step sequence from China. Yakov had plenty of things to say, but he couldn’t argue with Viktor’s 85. Florentin did as expected. Rykov had a very good day, earning an 82. Viktor’s score held up for first, with Rykov second and Kamil third.

Yuuri caught up to Viktor about the same time as the press did. “Yuuri! What did you think of Viktor’s performance?”

“It was very effective and I very much enjoyed it. I know most of our friends did, too.” Yuuri kissed Viktor’s cheek. “Sorry, but Yuri still thinks your program is ridiculous.”

“Of course he does!” Viktor giggled as he imagined Yuri’s reaction.

“Rykov had a very good day, wouldn’t you say? He’s in second. If he’s on the podium with you, what will you do?”

Viktor and Yuuri exchanged exasperated looks. What else was Viktor going to say? That he was going to pout and stomp and act like a child? “Pose for pictures, congratulate him, probably invite him and Sasha to come celebrate with me and Yuuri and our friends. Neither of us are sore losers and we’re both professionals who will play nice for the cameras.”

“Yuuri, do you agree that Rykov isn’t a sore loser? Given how he treated you because Yakov chose you over him…”

“People can change. I’ve seen far more dramatic change than a teenage boy growing out of childish behavior. Rykov is not a sore loser.”

Rykov laughed at the questions when they met up for dinner. “Anyone who gets sore about losing to Viktor is an idiot – except for a few people, I guess, you and Misha and maybe Bin if he’s caught up from last year. The rivalry story’s just too good to let go of, I guess.”

Masumi and Jolanda were in first place after the short dance, with Anya and Christov in second. There was a lot to celebrate at dinner, and even with having to watch how much they drank because of skating the next day, they had a good time.

 

The events were in the same order the next day for the free skate. Skye did beautifully, and thanks to Raisa’s lower performance score, Skye was able to pass her for second behind Sato. Both Skye and Sako were going to the finals. Yuuri felt a brief twinge of disappointment for Sara as it meant she was an alternate, but it was only her first year, she could do better next year and get there. Raisa took the disappointment well, promising that next year she’d be in the Finals.

In the mens’ free skate, things went as expected through the first group. Florentin dropped below Clarien, and then Su had a very strong performance that Kamil didn’t match. Kamil, it appeared, was taking it a little bit easy – his quad salchow became a triple instead, and his spins didn’t look as good as usual. It dropped him behind Su. Rykov kept up his good performance, taking the lead and guaranteeing himself a silver medal. Viktor could see the surprise and joy on his face from out on the ice.

He forced out any thoughts of standings or points to focus on his routine. Yakov would never forgive him if he couldn’t properly do a salchow to save his life again. He started well with his quad flip, and his triple axel went well. Once again, though, it was underrotated, and he didn’t get the height he felt like he needed. He shook it off a little better this time, and he got a little sarcastic at his triple salchow and did the best salchow he’d ever done in competition. With that behind him, he was able to focus and enjoy his skating, and his program finished strong with a good triple flip and a smooth step sequence.

“That was better. You’re not getting the power you need on that quad salchow, though. Why not?” Viktor shrugged. “You might want to think about moving it. You’ve got a triple axel, a three-jump combo, and the quad all in a row. If you moved it to after your step sequence, it would get you a bit of a break, and you might have less trouble with it.”

“Maybe. I’ll give it a try in practice.”

“At least you kept it to one mistake instead of letting it affect the rest of your routine.” That said, Yakov had a lot more to say about it. His score was much better at 173 – not better enough, but better. He wasn’t going to beat Yuuri with a 173! It was good enough for gold and the top seed at Finals, though.

It wasn’t quite a Saccharine Six reunion, with Chris out and Bin in, but it was close. Georgi and Kamil made it in, with Jude as the alternate. Ice dance went well for them, as Masumi and Jolanda held on to their gold to make finals, and Anya and Christov held their silver which put them in as well.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NRW Trophy.
> 
> 29 November-4 December 2011

Yakov and Yuri left right after the the exhibition skate. Yakov didn’t see the sense in going back to Saint Petersburg if they wouldn’t be there long enough to practice, so he took Yuri straight to Dortmund. There were a lot more people there than Yuri was used to.

At practice, Yuri dutifully stuck to doubles as he expected to be told to do. After half an hour, Yakov waved him over to the side of the rink. “Yuri. How are you feeling out there?”

“Comfortable. Rested.”

“Feel up to triples?”

“Yes!” He hoped this wasn't a trick question, but either way, he was going to give the honest answer.

“Good. This competition is often a showcase audition for sponsorship. Everyone here is going to be doing their best. As long as you feel comfortable and rested, don’t hold back. You’re not here to win, you’re here to impress sponsors, and if you win, so much the better.”

Yuri stared at him. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. I think you’ve learned your lesson, and I know how important sponsorship is to you. Now go practice your triples!”

Yuri beamed and skated back out to practice. His triple salchow and toe loops were still solid, but his flip was a little shaky. He had to focus on that one.

 

After practice, Emil found him. “Hi! My coach is taking me and a few others to play laser tag, think your coach will let you come along?”

Yuri looked to Yakov. He was reasonably sure Yakov would say yes, given that his seniors were encouraged to go out and make friends, so it was no surprise when Yakov nodded. “Be careful and don’t get yourself hurt, but go have fun. Call me when you’re done.”

Yuri had never played, but it seemed simple enough. To his surprise, Yuri found that he was having a great time. When he called Yuuri that evening, he couldn’t help himself, spilling over about how awesome laser tag was and how cool it had been running around in the dark and shooting people.

“Sorry I’m missing your birthday, though. Did you at least make Viktor do something fun for you?”

“Nothing you’d have enjoyed all that much. We were in class all day, making up things we missed while we were gone, and then we went out to dinner.” Yuuri turned his phone down to his lap, where Yuri could see his cat staring back at him. “Potya wants to say hello, I think.” Potya meowed at the phone. Yuri smiled and meowed back. “Then it’ll be on to bed. Training and school don’t exactly let us go out and do much.”

“Boring.”

“Yeah, I know, but Vitya’s promised we’ll have some fun this weekend. Besides, it hasn’t been all boring, I’m just editing out stuff that you don’t want to hear about.”

Yuri made a face. “Of course you are.”

 

The next day was the short program, where Yuri watched as a few of the other skaters did some triples. None of the other ones his age, but older skaters. He watched as most of them messed them up, too. There were some scores in the mid to high thirties, which Yuri would have worried about if Yakov hadn’t given him the go-ahead for triples.

He started things off with a triple flip. It was clean but not special, and Yuri wasn’t happy with it. Thanks to the limits on working on jumps over the last month, he’d put a lot of work into his step sequence, and of course he took advantage of having Yuuri around to help. He’d be an idiot not to. If he wanted to be the best, he had to learn from the best, and when it came to step sequences, that was Yuuri. His final jump was a triple salchow-double loop combo that he did beautifully. The sponsors should be impressed.

Yakov wasn’t. Yakov had a lot of criticism. Yuri listened. It couldn’t hurt. His score was by far the best of the day, over 46, and he was satisfied with it. He wouldn’t be for long, but he was proud of it.

It didn’t hold up. Emil got up over 48. Emil was also three years older than him, so Yuri didn’t feel too bad about it. He’d barely gotten changed after finishing his program before Yakov was directing him toward a couple of people interested in talking to him. One of the potential sponsors took him out to dinner. By the end of the dinner, they had a handshake deal just waiting to be written up and signed.

 

The next morning, while Yakov was in a meeting, Yuri was approached by a vaguely familiar man. “Yuri Plisetsky, right? If I didn’t know this was your first year competing, I would never have believed it.”

Yuri narrowed his eyes. It struck him where he’d met this guy before. Boris’s friend from the airport. “Why are you here?”

“Watching the skating, of course. I’m more interested in ice dancing, but the singles and pairs are always worth watching. Especially the senior ladies and pairs!” He winked. “I don’t usually watch the novices, but I saw your name on the entry list and you told me to remember it. You’re right, as long as you don’t get hurt, I should be seeing you in the Olympics. In 2018, right? You won’t be old enough by 2014?”

“No.” Yuri glared. “Who are you anyway?”

“You can call me Lev. I’m a fan.” He looked away. “I have to go, but it was good to see you again. You skated really well.”

Yuri watched Lev walk off. The hand on his shoulder surprised him, and he jumped. Yakov looked down at him. “Something wrong?”

“No. Just ran into a friend of Boris’s or something. He creeps me out a little, that’s all.”

“And Boris doesn’t?”

Yuri smirked. “Boris just pisses me off.”

 

Most of the skaters scored over fifty. Once again, though, Yuri didn’t worry about that. Yuri wasn’t going to try to do all of his jumps as triples, of course, but he was going to do several of them. He started off with doubles – he couldn’t do a triple axel yet, and he wasn’t quite comfortable with a triple flip in a combination. The triple salchow, yes, and his second combination was his first triple. After that, the only other double jump he did was a double Lutz. It felt great, although he was very tired by the time he was done.

73 was a great score, one he was very pleased with. He’d blown his old personal best out of the water. Yakov would probably rein him in, restrict his triples again, but from what he was seeing from Emil, his coach did the same thing to him. Between that and Viktor’s explanation, he was willing to accept the restriction. For now.

Speaking of Emil, he put up a huge score, 87. Yuri was duly impressed, motivated, and not upset at all that Emil was getting the gold. Taking silver, at ten years old, was quite enough to put the skating world on notice. They thought Viktor was a living legend? They hadn’t seen anything yet.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Quebec! New and old friends alike gather for fun times.
> 
> Timeline: early December 2011

Yuuri hadn’t expected anything, so it was quite the surprise when Yuri came over after getting home from Dortmund and shoved a bag into his hands. “Happy birthday.”

“Thanks!” Yuuri pulled out a blue sweater with a poodle on the front that looked like Vicchan. “It’s so cute! I love it.”

“Good. This doesn’t change that I think cats are superior to dogs. Just so we’re clear, I still think poodles are dumb beasts.”

Yuuri tried his best to contain the laughter, and mostly succeeded. “Potya likes his dumb beast friends, at least.”

“Potya’s a traitor. Where is he?”

“Probably harassing Vitya. He’s trying to read a book for his Russian history class.”

Yuri giggled. “Good cat!” He ran up the stairs to see, and Viktor’s insincere protest about being interrupted was loud enough for Yuuri to hear downstairs.

 

Yuri got to come to Canada with everyone, since all of his rinkmates were competing and Yakov wanted Lilia’s help herding skaters. Kamil and Anatolij were both there. “How’s Nadiya?” Viktor asked.

“Still on bed rest, but when I offered to withdraw to look after her, she told me that bed rest or not she would kick my ass.” Kamil grinned. “Anatolij, of course, same threat.”

Chris came with Masumi and Jolanda, and Paul came with Skye. “I wonder what they’re going to call us this year, since we’ve got some of the ladies with us but Bin probably won’t join us,” Viktor said.

“Am I not welcome?”

Viktor jumped a little in surprise at Bin’s question. “You’re welcome to come hang out if you want! You just never have before so I didn’t think you’d want to.”

“You looked like you were having fun last year. I want to come, if I may.”

“Sure! Come on, then.” Yuuri got Bin’s phone number and distributed it to the group.

 

It was a bit of a surprise to see Takeshi, since Mari and Minako were both there, along with the Nishigoris and Yuuko’s parents. “Who’s got the triplets?” Yuuri asked once he was done with hugs.

“Your parents, with help from my sister and her soulmate,” Takeshi said. “They’ve decided they want to raise their kids in Hasetsu.”

“Akemi’s pregnant?”

“Not yet, but they’re going to start trying, and figured it would be easier to move now when they didn’t have any babies. Yuuko and I naturally agreed that once babies came, moving would be way harder, and we could recommend a pretty good obstetrician.”

 

Bin was a welcome, if quiet, addition to their group. Mila brought her new friend Cathy with them, which was nice. Phichit made a bit of a face when he heard someone calling his name. “Hi, JJ. What are you doing here?”

“Montreal’s not that far from Quebec City, so my family all came to watch. Dad wanted to talk to Celestino anyway.”

“About what?”

“Bringing JJ style to Detroit!” JJ made the Js and beamed. “He and Mom think it would be good for me to work with a different coach for a year or two, learn some different techniques, and they think Celestino’s the best in North America.”

Yuri scoffed. “You’re so awful that your coach is firing you, you mean.”

“No, Dad’s my coach, it’s just that he and Mom were ice dancers so he thinks I could use a coach who competed in singles to work with me on my jumps before I start training quads. Besides, different perspectives are always good!”

Yuri didn’t even try to hide the snickering. “Wow. Your own father is firing you as a skater?”

“No, he…” JJ trailed off as someone called him. “I have to go, but we might be rinkmates soon, Phichit! Good to see you, and good luck tomorrow!”

“Thanks.”

Once JJ was gone, Paul shook his head. “If he’s going to be our rinkmate, I’m investing in earplugs. Ciao Ciao will understand, I’m sure.”

 

Mila’s competition was the first one of any of them. She skated well, and wasn’t particularly upset that she finished the day in sixth. “Just making it here in my first year is kind of a big deal! My score was better than qualifiers, and I’ve got at least one more year, probably two. Besides, this is Cathy’s year, and she’s in first!”

The junior men’s short program was the last event of the first day. Seung Gil took first, Phichit second. They were only separated by two points, and the teasing was fun to watch as they headed out for a late dinner. While they walked, Minako poked Viktor and Yuuri. “Next time you two are going to make a new friend from a different country, think you can warn me before we have to buy the overpriced flags they sell here?”

“Sorry, we weren’t expecting it either,” Yuuri said. “I don’t think Bin would have been offended if you and Mari weren’t cheering for him, given who his competition is.”

“We’re cheering for Kamil.”

“Kamil’s been our friend for years.”

Minako shrugged. “Look, you want to pick the fight with Mari about not spending way too much money on a flag to support Bin, you do it. She insisted.”

 

While they were hanging out after eating, Phichit’s phone alerted him, and he checked it and burst into laughter. “Hey everyone, we’re on the internet already! ‘Last year, the Grand Prix Finals featured the Saccharine Six. This year, with five of the six back, it’s no surprise that they’re back at it. What does come as a surprise is that notable loner Cao Bin has joined them.’ Sorry, Bin, that’s what it says, I didn’t write it.”

“What is ‘saccharine’? I don’t know that word,” Bin said.

“It means sweet, but it’s usually used for things that are too sweet, or where the sweetness seems fake,” Mari explained. “Viktor and Yuuri get that a lot for some reason.”

“This is not fake, not that I’ve ever seen,” Bin said. “What else does it say, Phichit?”

“It talks about how some of the ladies and ice dancers have joined us this year – not really a surprise, but still nice to see. And then, Yuuri, Viktor, you’re going to love this. ‘We can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Valery Rykov had made it. Would he be assimilated into the collective, or would even this group’s power of love be stretched to its limit?’”

Seung Gil burst into laughter, along with a few others. Viktor just shook his head. “If Rykov were here, Sasha would be too, and of course my sister and her soulmate would be invited to hang out with us. What is with these reporters?”

“Who knows. And then they wonder why we can’t ever seem to make friends with pairs skaters, which, fair enough, I guess. Of course, the ice dancers are all someone's soulmate or girlfriend or family or their partners, so that's probably when we'll start picking up pairs skaters, when one of us gets a soulmate who is one.” Phichit put his phone up. “Welcome to the media circus, Bin and Cathy. Enjoy the ride!”


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Competition Day 2 and fuck you, media.

The next day would be busy, as almost everyone skated. The ladies’ short program was the second event of the day, after the junior pairs’ free skate. Skye was up first, and it was obvious that she was rather nervous about it as she struggled a bit with her jumps. She was just as fun to watch as always, though. Iona put forth a beautiful skate, one that neither Emily nor Sako could match. Yuuko’s skate came very close, but wasn’t quite enough. Kang Hee took the lead by over five points with a nearly perfect skate. Yuuko was very happy with her placement, but Skye was a little disappointed.

They were followed by the short dance, where Kirill and Katya took first place, Anya and Christov were second, Masumi and Jolanda third, and Anatolij and Olesya in fifth. The sixth-place couple, a pair of Americans, ended up withdrawing after attempting to skate – Elyse Morgan had injured her knee between the NHK and the Finals, and although she’d tried to push through it, she couldn’t.

Junior Ladies’ free skate was up next. Mila skated well, and the energy was infectious and the crowd really got into it. It was good enough to push her up to fourth, with quite a large gap between her and the medalists. Cathy won the gold medal, with Corinna Muresanu of Romania silver and Akahoshi Kei of Japan taking bronze. Mila was thrilled with the podium, being gracious with hugs and congratulations for everyone.

Junior men didn’t skate that day, so the senior men’s short program was the last event of the day. Like the year before, they came together at the end of the warmup period for a pep talk from Misha, ending with a group “Davai!” Kamil went first and did quite well, turning in a clean program. Georgi skated better than Viktor had seen him do his program this year, which pushed him into the high 80s with his score. Viktor could beat it easily and Yuuri likely would, but Misha and Bin might have trouble. Bin put up a good program, in the mid 80s, ahead of Kamil but not catching Georgi. Misha struggled from the moment he set foot on ice. There was nothing huge wrong, no one thing that would seem to be the problem, but nothing flowed and it looked like Misha was fighting for everything he could get. It wasn’t a surprise to Viktor when Misha ended up not even cracking 80.

Yuuri, having to skate after that, did not look comfortable. Viktor gave him a soft kiss right before sending him out to the ice. “Misha’s not out of this. Go do your best, love.”

“I’ll try.” Viktor relaxed once he saw Yuuri bring the quad toe loop down. If he could get through that, he could get through the program. His spins were beautiful, unusually good that day, and he handled the jumps cleanly. Yuuri was going to get a great score. 90.99, which made Viktor laugh as he saw the look of frustration on Yuuri’s face.

Viktor had his own program to skate, of course, and he was determined to at least try the quad Lutz. After his jump combo and his flying camel spin went well, he was ready. He gave it a good try. Underrotated and two-footed the landing, but at least he didn’t fall. Everything else went smoothly, but that missed jump was going to haunt him.

Yuuri met him at the Kiss and Cry with a kiss. “You did great!”

“Somehow I doubt Yakov agrees.” Viktor sat down beside his coach and listened as Yakov talked. Both he and Yuuri burst out laughing as soon as Viktor’s score came up – 91.01.

 

When reporters caught them, Viktor had to shake his head at the first question. “You did a quad Lutz, only the second person to do one, and were only two hundredths ahead of the next skater up. Does that make you nervous heading into the rest of the year?”

Yuuri jumped in before Viktor could say anything. “My husband underrotated a quad Lutz and messed up the landing, I had a clean skate, and he’s still ahead of me. If either of us should be nervous about the rest of the season, it’s me! Even if it’s only two hundredths now, he’s got a better chance of improving it come Worlds than I do.”

“Besides, you make it sound like losing to Yuuri is something to be nervous about! I love seeing Yuuri win, even if it’s over me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy winning, even over Yuuri, but not more than I love Yuuri.”

“So, everything’s still honeymoon and joy for you after eight months of marriage?”

“Has it really only been eight months?” Viktor looked at Yuuri.

Yuuri nodded. “Since we officially got married, yes, but I get why you’re so confused. It feels like it’s been so much longer.”

“You even have a son, of sorts, we hear.”

Viktor and Yuuri stared at each other for a bit. Viktor was the one who finally ventured, “Do you mean Yuri Plisetsky?”

“Yes, of course. You consider him family, don’t you?”

“He is family, just as Misha and Mila and Georgi are. I’d say more like a little brother than a son, though, I’m not _that_ much older than him, and even Vitya’s only twelve years older,” Yuuri said.

“So the rumor that the two of you are planning to adopt him when his mother remarries next summer is wrong?”

“This is the first either of us has heard of it, and I would expect the first Yuri hears of it will be when we tell him we got asked. We have no further comment on this, until we have a chance to speak to others.” Viktor put an arm around Yuuri’s back, guiding him away from the reporters even as they continued to shout questions.

 

Yakov was furious at the new rumors, and Yuri sulked in the corner. Viktor went over to sit beside him. “Yuri, to the best of my knowledge, your mother has no intention of abandoning you. Marrying Boris isn’t about getting rid of you.”

Yuri kicked at the wall. “She’s got her perfect new family and I mess that up.”

“You’re going out there after this, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, Boris is picking me up here and we’re going to New York, and then Mama and Boris will bring me back to Saint Petersburg after Nationals to get ready for Celje and stay to watch me in the competition.”

“There you go, then! That doesn’t sound like someone who wants to cut you out of their lives. But I do want you to not ever doubt this: if something does happen with your mama and Boris and you need someone to go to, Yuuri and I are here for you.”

“I know. For now, anyway. Eventually you and Yuuri are going to get your own real kids, though.”

Viktor hugged Yuri tight. “And you’re going to be their uncle or big brother or however you want to see yourself to them. Try to have faith in us, okay? I know it’s hard, but remember how your mother got better about being in your life after Natasha was born.”

“I’ll try. I guess. You guys haven’t let me down yet.” Yuri squirmed out of the hug.


	19. Chapter 19

Yuuko was super nervous about the free skate. Yuuri understood, and he made sure to stay close to her until she had to leave to get ready. Skye promised to keep her company and not let her get too caught up in her head while they waited. “I tried to talk them into stealing your thing of ending warmups with a group huddle and a davai – except we’d use ganba, since half of us are Japanese and none of us are Russian. Sako and Kang-Hee wouldn’t go for it.”

“Sako’s really shy, and Kang-Hee is very focused and would find it a distraction. I thought it would be fun, and maybe next year we can do it!” Yuuko hugged Yuuri. “Good luck yourself.”

Skye was the first to skate, and she did very well, getting close to 120. She held the lead through Emily and Sako’s skates, but it wasn’t enough to catch Yuuko. Yuuko broke down sobbing when her score came up, clinging to Takeshi. Yuuri didn’t watch Iona’s skate, keeping an eye on Yuuko instead, and he was very relieved to see the giant smile. It didn’t dim at all even as first Iona and then Kang-Hee beat her out, giving her bronze.

Yuuri couldn’t stay to watch the medals. He had to go start warming up. Yakov checked in with each skater to make sure they felt good and were focused and ready to go fight each other for gold, but other than that, left them to their own devices. Misha’s struggles continued, and his score was incredibly disappointing for him – not even 160. Once again, there wasn’t anything specific that Yuuri could see, he was just struggling. Kamil did better, easily beating Misha, but Yuuri wasn’t worried about him or Viktor beating his score. Bin became the first skater to break 170 for the day, but it wasn’t enough to beat Georgi despite Georgi’s 168.

Yuuri reminded himself that all he had to do was skate well, and Yakov echoed the sentiment. Whether he beat Viktor or not didn’t really matter to them. With that in mind, he set off for his quad flip, landing it cleanly. Everything flowed, Yuuri had fun with the swashbuckling, and it showed. He made it through his program without any major mistakes, although his final combination was a bit shaky still. Yakov went through the critique, but Yuuri’s score was 180.78. A new personal best. Nowhere close to Viktor’s record, but better than Viktor had done this year.

Viktor looked confident as he took the ice, and as soon as the music started, Yuuri was fighting back drool. Of course he’d seen this in practice, and live in Moscow, but that wasn’t the same as sitting there beside the rink where he could see every detail. The first quad flip was beautiful, probably the best Yuuri had ever seen from him. Viktor had changed up the jump composition, spreading out the jumps a little better, and it paid off as Viktor’s second quad came down clean. Yuuri was very glad he had some time before he had to leave the Kiss and Cry, because it could be rather embarrassing right now.

Viktor found that hilarious and leaned over to whisper, “I promise you, I won’t leave you hanging too long. We have to stay and watch Phichit and Seung Gil, but then…”

“Vitya!” Yuuri blushed hard. “At Worlds, if I’m skating after you, I’m not watching you. I don’t care what the media has to say about it. There is no way I could go out and skate right now.”

Yakov stood up and walked out of the Kiss and Cry, much to Viktor’s amusement. He started laughing even harder when his score popped up – 180.75, for a total of 271.76 – one hundredth lower than Yuuri’s total of 271.77. “Amazing! Yuuri! Look!”

Yuuri burst into laughter as well. “I can’t believe this! You deserved higher presentation marks, I thought.”

“Yes, I know what you thought of my presentation.” Viktor kissed Yuuri’s cheek. “Come on, they probably want us for medals.”

Being on the podium with Georgi was great, and Yakov was very proud of his skaters. Yuuri and Viktor kissed each other’s medals on the podium, and Georgi kissed both as well. “I know it’s normally only gold, but really, I think we can treat this as a tie.”

They managed to avoid the media long enough to get to the stands to watch the junior men’s skate. Phichit and Seung Gil were the last two. Phichit’s free skate went well, but not well enough to beat Norwegian skater Roar Boler. Things started out well for Seung Gil, but after an awkward landing on a triple Lutz, his skating became a bit more hesitant. He ended up finishing in fourth. Phichit got his silver medal and was all smiles and cheer on the podium, but Yuuri knew him well enough to see the worry that he was trying to cover up.

The media’s first question: “I’ve never heard of Yakov Feltsman walking out of a Kiss and Cry before getting his skater’s score. What happened there?”

“I was teasing Yuuri and I think we went a little too far. The only other thing I can think of is that he couldn’t think of anything to tell me to work on, which given that I took silver, I refuse to believe! There’s always something I can do better on next time.”

“What were you teasing Yuuri about?”

Viktor glanced quickly at Yuuri, easily seeing his discomfort. “How close our scores were yesterday. I’m pretty good at guessing scores, and when I came off, I told him we were probably not going to see much separation today. And I was right!”

“You were! How does it feel, losing by such a small margin?”

“It feels amazing! I agree with Georgi – on the podium, he said that we really should treat this as a tie, and while I know it goes in the record books as a silver for me, I’m happy to think of it as a tie. Yuuri, maybe not so much, because if it’s a tie I can still make him play Assassin’s Creed with me instead of letting him pick the video games until Nationals!” Viktor winked at the reporters as they started laughing.

Yuuri laughed, too. “I’m okay with calling it a tie, Vitya.”

“Yuuri, your friend just won silver in the Junior Grand Prix Finals. Do you think he’ll move up next year?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him about it. If he does, I’d be very happy to compete against him, but if he and Celestino think he needs another year in Juniors, I’ll support that.”

“As his friend, you’d know if there’s any truth to the rumors that he and Seung Gil are dating.”

“Phichit is a social media mastermind. If he were dating someone, you would know about it. They’re good friends, but no, they are not dating that I know of.”

As soon as the media was gone, Yuuri dragged Viktor out of the rink. “This is why we don’t make friends with pairs skaters. Otherwise we’d have to stay and watch them, too.”

Viktor didn’t stop laughing until they were in the taxi. “Okay, but are they determined to kill us? Yuri yesterday, Phichit today, what stupid rumor are we going to hear about Mila tomorrow?”

“Well, you know. We’re married, we’re still obviously in love so no one would believe a story about our imminent divorce, they gotta do something.” Yuuri snuggled up against Viktor. “Besides, the one about Phichit isn’t terrible. It’s wrong, at least as far as I know, but I know Phichit likes Seung Gil and the surprise would be that Phichit’s dating at all, not that it’s Seung Gil. When would Phichit have time between school, skating, and social media? And Seung Gil’s always so focused, I can’t see him dating until he knows he’s dating the right person.”

"True."

"On the subject of horrible media, thanks for lying about the teasing."

Viktor kissed Yuuri. "There are some things that should remain private, and this is one of them."


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> End of the Finals. Yuri heads out to New York to see his mother and sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: there is somewhat vague talk about bad things that can happen to kids in entertainment and athletic careers. There are no specifics and the worst thing that happens to Yuri is he has to put up with Boris.

Ice dancing was the only event scheduled for the last day, with the exhibition skate afterward. Anatolij and Olesya got bronze, Masumi and Jolanda silver, and Anya and Christov gold. Georgi cried when he found out, and Yuuri hugged him. “Anya did great. You should be proud.”

For the exhibition, Yuuri surprised Viktor by showing up after the first verse and playing the fanboy, drooling and fawning over Viktor and pretending to faint when Viktor stripped down to the tank top. Georgi skated out and pulled him off the ice, giving him a chance to put on his Hook coat and hat before his exhibition.

No crocodile this time – Viktor didn’t have time to get the costume on. He did have time to put on a Peter Pan hat and a green tunic and come out for a swordfight. They had great fun with their fake swords, dueling back and forth across the ice, doing jumps and spins to get away from each other. It was a great time and the fans were really into it.

There were no more horrible or wildly inaccurate rumors from the media. Phichit and Seung Gil weren’t phased by the rumors of their relationship at all. “I’ve grown up watching you two. Every time you made a new friend, they were clearly one of your real soulmate. I’m part of the group, Seung Gil and I are close, this was inevitable. And, hey. Maybe he and I are soulmates! I’d like that, I think.”

Viktor frowned at Phichit. “Are you two going to date?”

“If he’s my soulmate, duh. Of course we will." Phichit stuck out his tongue at Viktor. "If I don’t have a soulmate or my soulmate’s awful, and he doesn’t have a soulmate or has an awful one, maybe. I just don’t particularly want to mess with it until I know who my soulmate is.”

 

Yuri was not looking forward to seeing Boris. He was pretty sure the feeling was mutual, at least. Once the flight was underway, Yuri expected Boris to ignore him and read or play a game or something. Instead, Boris had questions for him. “How does a skating competition work?”

Yuri decided to keep it basic. Boris probably didn't really care. “Well, skaters prepare three programs. The short program, the free skate, and an exhibition skate for if you win. Most of the time skaters will have a theme for them. There’s things you have to do during your skate, jumps and spins and stuff, and you tie it together with dance. You’re scored based on how well you do the technical elements and how good your presentation is. Harder jumps and spins are worth more points, but you’re more likely to f… mess them up, so you’ve gotta be careful.”

“So it’s a dance competition on ice?”

“Dance is only part of it. There’s the technical part, too.”

“And you’re good at this.”

Yuri smiled. “Yes. Three competitions, three medals.”

“Hmm.”

Speaking of competitions reminded him. “My last competition I ran into your friend Lev. He creeps me out.”

“Who?”

Yuri blinked. “Lev?” When Boris still looked blank, he added, “That guy from the airport last time?”

“Oh! Him." Boris frowned. "I’d never spoken to him before then. Haven’t talked to him since. Where’d you get the idea he was my friend?”

Yuri's stomach twisted. “Well, you were telling him about me…”

“He thought you looked familiar and I told him you look like your mother. He’s a skating fan, he used to watch Irishka skate. You’ll remember he thought you were my son. If we were friends, he’d know that my son’s way older than you.”

Yuri's jaw dropped. “You have a son?”

“Yes. You’ll probably never meet him, we don’t get along very well.”

“I can’t imagine why.”

Boris rolled his eyes. “Back to this guy. Lev. How do you know his name?”

“We ran into each other at my last competition and he told me.”

“Okay. Lev. Could be lying or misleading you...”

“Why would he do that?” Yuri interrupted.

Boris raised a hand, but thought better of it and let it drop back to his lap. “Yuri, not all adults can or should be trusted. If Lev is creeping you out, there’s probably a reason for it. If you see him again, get Yakov or Lilia. Or if it’s in Celje, me or your mama.”

“What do you care? You don’t give a crap about me.”

“For one thing, you’re Irishka’s son, she loves you, and I love her. I don’t have to like you to know what it would do to her if something bad happened to you. For another, I’ve seen kids your age breaking into modeling or acting who end up getting scammed or hurt or worse because they trusted an adult they shouldn’t have. No child deserves that.”

Yuri thought that over. It made sense. Of course, thinking it over brought up another thought. “You’d know your son if you saw him, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, and Lev is too old to be him anyway. Stas is 17, and Lana’s 20.”

Lana. A daughter, too. Yuri was starting to get a bit afraid for Natasha. “Where are they?”

“Lana’s in Boston at university. You’ll probably meet her at the wedding. Stas is in Yakutsk, in high school. He lives with his aunt and uncle there.”

“Why there?” As far as he knew, Boris was from Moscow.

“Because when I moved to America, he didn’t want to come with me. All my family is there.”

“Do you ever talk to him at all?”

“At least once a month, to make sure he has everything he needs and to keep up with how he’s doing in school and stuff. Like I said, we don't get along very well, so we rarely talk more than that.”

Huh. Well, Boris was doing better than Yuri's asshole of a father, not that that was a very high bar. Maybe Natasha would be okay. “So if you’ve got kids, why’d you make it so hard for Mama to see me?”

Boris shrugged. “The last time I saw Stas face to face, he was eight. You had your grandfather and Yakov and Viktor looking out for you.”

“He was eight and you didn’t make him move to America with you?”

“I couldn’t. Divorce terms. I couldn’t take the kids out of the country without Sofiya’s – my ex-wife’s – consent. She signed the papers for me to bring Lana because Lana wanted to go, but not for Stas.”

“Why isn’t he with his mother?” Yuri had been assuming she died, but apparently not.

“Because Sofiya is…” Boris stopped and waited a minute. “She’s not a bad person, but she has no business being in charge of children.”

“Why not?”

“She can barely take care of herself. Or at least, that’s how it was the last time I talked to her. That was years ago, but Stas says she’s still the same. She still talks to both Stas and Lana, although Stas more because Lana doesn't get along with her at all.”

“Is Sofiya your soulmate?”

“Yes. Soulmates don’t always work out, you know.”

“I know." He'd just hoped that maybe, somehow, Boris was his mama's soulmate. That his asshole of a father wasn't his mother's soulmate. "It’s just weird to think about you having a whole other family I didn’t know about.”

The corner of Boris’s mouth twitched. “Irishka knows all about them. She’s spoken to Stas and met Lana. If that’s what you’re worried about.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Isn't it fun when your characters surprise you? Some of it, I knew. Some I didn't.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas in New York

The first thing Yuri did when he got to the apartment was to find Natasha. She was playing with her stuffed tiger, which made Yuri smile. “Hey, Natasha.” Natasha clutched the tiger to her chest and stared in silence. “Hello, Kitty.”

Natasha looked between her tiger and Yuri's tiger-stripe jacket. Irina pointed to a picture of Yuri holding one of his stuffed tigers that was on an end table. “Yu-ya?”

“Yeah.”

“Yu-ya!” Natasha giggled and got to her feet, holding out her arms for a hug. Yuri complied readily. His baby sister was still the cute baby sister he loved, much to his relief.

Irina hugged Yuri too. “It’s good to see you, Yurotchka. Three medals already! Yakov must be proud of you.”

“Yakov’s always proud of his skaters. You know that.”

Irina smiled. “That's true. He is very proud." She knelt to look Yuri in the eyes. "Yakov told me about the rumors about Viktor and Yuuri adopting you.”

Yuri scowled. “Last I checked, I wasn’t up for adoption. Even if you decide to get rid of me, there’s still Grandpa.”

“I’m not getting rid of you. You’re my son. I know you and Boris don’t like each other, but you are family and you will always be welcome under my roof.” Yuri shot Boris a skeptical glance, but Boris nodded. Huh. Maybe Boris really did love Irina the way he said he did.

 

A couple days later, Irina got a phone call while she was skating with Yuri. She stepped off the ice to take it, causing Yuri to scowl and skate away as fast as he could through the crowd. He’d done three laps of the rink before Irina came back. “Where are you going this time?”

“Other than Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and Celje, I’m not going anywhere until March, when I’m hoping you won’t be able to come along because you’ll need to be training for the European Criterium Cup. And that’s back to Almaty. Why do you ask?”

“You got a call. That usually means you’re leaving.”

Irina laughed. “Not this time, sweetheart. This time, someone else is coming. I don’t know if Boris ever told you about his children…”

“On the flight out here.”

“Good, then. Lana’s coming up for the break. She’ll be staying with her soulmate and his family, but she wants to come over and spend time with Natasha and I can’t say no.”

“Do you want to?” If Irina didn't like Lana, how was Yuri supposed to give her a chance?

“Normally I wouldn’t, but I don’t want you and Lana to have problems with each other. Lana lives so much closer and can come up to see Boris and Natasha any time, but you only get out here once or twice a year.”

Yuri crossed his arms. “Lana’s kind of like a stepsister. If you’re marrying Boris. If she’s part of the family, I should get to meet her.”

“Well, you’re going to whether I like it or not. Be nice to her, do you hear me?”

"Yes, Mama. As long as she doesn't piss me off."

 

Lana was not what Yuri was expecting. Given that she was the child who got along with Boris, he was expecting her to be like him. She knocked on the door to Natasha’s room, even though it was open, to get Yuri’s attention from his game of peekaboo. “Can I borrow Natasha for a hug?”

“Sestra!” Natasha held out her arms. “Hug?”

Lana picked her up. “That’s new! You’re learning so quickly, Natasha!” She set Natasha back down and sat cross-legged on the floor. “Yuri, I assume? I’m Lana.”

“Yeah. I’m Yuri.” Lana didn’t look at all like Boris, short and with much darker coloring than her father. “She calls you Sestra?”

“Yeah. Watch this.” Lana smiled at Natasha. “Are you my sister?” Natasha nodded and giggled. “Ty moya sestra?” Natasha shook her head and poked Lana. “It’s like with cats. Her tiger is Kitty, all other cats are kot.”

Yuri smiled. “That one might be my fault.”

Lana laughed. “It’s nice to finally meet you. I know you and Papa don’t get along very well, which means I’m going to ignore most of what he’s told me about you. Which, to be honest, isn’t all that much to begin with.”

“All he’s told me about you is that you moved to America when he did and you’re in school in Boston. Do you want to be an… agent or manager or whatever the hell it is he does?”

“No. God no. Models and actors are some of the biggest drama queens you will ever meet.”

Yuri snorted. “You don’t know Viktor Nikiforov.”

“No, but I know of him. He does modeling and acting jobs, so close enough, right?”

“I’ve done a few.”

“So did I, before they decided I wasn’t pretty enough to be worth the drama I caused over having to do it. Papa didn’t like it, but when he realized I was much happier with being able to pursue my own interests, he came around.” Lana looked fondly at Natasha, who had curled up around her tiger. “I just hope he learned from that, because Natasha’s probably going to be exactly what they want in a model.”

“Maybe she’ll like it. Right now, though… it looks like she’s ready for a nap.”

Aside from Natasha, Yuri and Lana didn’t really have much in common, and Lana’s perkiness got on Yuri’s nerves quickly. Small doses were okay, but he would hate to live with her. Still, he kept his temper in check, because Irina had asked. Natasha was still his favorite sister, and having met Lana, he had some hope that maybe Natasha would grow up to not be a completely spoiled brat.

Christmas was fun. Yuri kept his disdain for Santa to himself, because this year, Natasha was old enough to understand, and he didn’t want to ruin it for her. The other traditions were starting to grow on him, too.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuuri in Japan for Nationals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! My YOI Fantasy Week stories kept getting away from me and taking all my writing time.

Viktor and Yuuri didn’t take much time off between Finals and Nationals. As always, their Nationals overlapped just enough that there was no way they could be there for each other. This year, at least, there was enough of a spread that Yakov planned to go with Yuuri to Japan and leave after the short program. Yuuri would go straight to Hasetsu, where Viktor would meet him after his competition finished. The downside to that, of course, was that it was that much longer that they were separated.

Yuuri and Yakov left on the 21st. The last time they’d been in Kadoma, Viktor had been on crutches and his family and friends got to see just what a dork he was for themselves. Yuuri missed him a lot as he settled in.

He wasn’t surprised to see Yuuko or Mari, and of course Minako was there to take over as Yuuri’s coach for the free skate and exhibition. He was surprised to see Takeshi with his parents and Yuuko’s parents, but the biggest surprise was that they’d brought the triplets. “Yuuri-san!” Axel started trying to squirm away from Mari.

“Hi!” Yuuri took Axel and hugged her. “You brought the girls?”

“Why not? They’re going to be doing a lot of traveling, may as well get them used to it now, and this was a nice short trip as far as the actual travel goes,” Takeshi said.

“And it meant that more people could come!” Yuuko added. “Your parents couldn’t leave the onsen and Kioshi didn’t want to take the time off preparing for his entrance exams. Akemi and her husband are coming tomorrow – they had a doctor’s appointment today and we’re hoping for good news.”

 

When Yuuri called Viktor that night, he had trouble containing his excitement. “You’ll never believe it!”

“What?”

“My cutest supporters ever are here to support me!”

As expected, Viktor pouted mightily. “I thought I was your cutest supporter.”

“Sorry, Viktor. You’ve been replaced.”

Viktor hung up. Yuuko looked at Yuuri. “Is he really mad?”

“I don’t think so. He won’t be once I explain.” Yuuri called back. It rang a lot longer than usual before Viktor accepted the call. “Do you want to see them?”

“No.”

“Yes, you do.” Yuuri turned the camera so it was on Yuuko and the triplets. “Can you say hi, girls?”

Axel waved. “Hi!” Lutz barely reacted – she was much more interested in her toes. Loop dropped her doll – official Viktor Nikiforov merchandise – and walked toward the computer.

“Hello, girls! It’s good to see you!” Viktor waved back at them. “Hi Yuuko!”

Yuuri picked up the Viktor doll to show the real person. “Loop has a favorite toy.” It was based on his dragon costume, which meant he still had the long silver hair. Viktor couldn’t help the grin.

Yuuko and Takeshi rounded up the girls and their toys. “We’ll see you tomorrow, Yuuri.”

Once the Nishigoris left, Yuuri settled on the bed. Viktor’s smile was gone. Yuuri felt a pit in his stomach. “You’re not seriously jealous of a group of toddlers, are you?”

“No, of course not, that would be ridiculous.”

“Vitya…”

“No, really, I know I’m being ridiculous, but I don’t like the thought of being replaced for you. I know you were only joking, but it hurt.”

“I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.” Yuuri reached out and pressed his fingers to his screen. “Please forgive me?”

“You’re forgiven.” Viktor put his hand up to match Yuuri’s. “Have you seen the latest media story?”

“No.”

“We knew it was going to happen. Supposedly you’re filing for divorce and going home to Hasetsu because you found out I’m thinking of someone else when I’m out there skating sex.”

“Oh, no! I hadn’t seen it yet, I’m so sorry, I wouldn’t have even joked about replacing you if I’d known. Are the Hamsters on it?”

“Of course. They didn’t even bother consulting us, Phichit knows better than to believe there’s a word of truth to it.”

 

The men’s short program was the second event on the 23rd. Yuuri was in the 4th group of five, with his two main competitors in the fifth group. Yuuri worked on homework through the first two groups, stretched out during group three. When he checked the scores, there was a bit of a surprise – the leader was a sixteen-year-old skater who’d won Junior Nationals. He got a 75, which was pretty good – no one else was above 70. Yuuri wasn’t worried about being able to beat him, not this year, but he was one to keep an eye on.

Togai was still in the lead when Yuuri took the ice. He started off well with his quad toe loop, and got even better through his combo spin and step sequence. The momentum carried him through well and when he landed his triple axel, he was ready to cheer. It was always a point of pride when Yakov had to work that hard for criticism, and the only downside to his new personal best score was that Viktor wasn’t there to celebrate with him.

Yakov hugged him. “Congratulations. Are you going to stay and watch Ichizo and Sachio, or go call Viktor?”

“Stay and watch. Viktor’s traveling today, he’ll call me when he gets to Saransk. Besides, I want to stay and watch Yuuko, and the women’s skate is right after this.”

“All right. I’ll be gone by the time you get back to the hotel so I can get to Saransk myself, so take care of yourself, have fun with the triplets, keep yourself loose, and call Viktor if you need him.”

“Yes, Coach. I don’t think I’ll have seventeen points, but I do think I’ll have a pretty big lead going into the free skate.”

Sachio put up a 74, to Yuuri’s surprise, and Ichizo got 85. A seven-point lead was still great. With Yuuko in the last group of the ladies’ skate, Yuuri decided to take the risk and go out and find the press to get it over with.

“Congratulations on a new personal best! You’re about half a point short of your husband’s record. Do you think you can take it this year?”

“I think I have room to grow in my program, but my husband is too good a skater for me to ever count on being able to take a record from him. I think I can beat his score, but that doesn’t guarantee me a record.”

“Do you prepare any differently when you’re competing against your husband than you do if you’re not?”

“Maybe a little. My husband is the world record holder for all three records and I train with him so I know how hard he’s working to beat his own records. There are many other skaters out there who are very good and I’m never going to rule out being beaten by someone else, but with Viktor, there’s just that little extra motivation to put forth my absolute best effort. It certainly helps that when we’re competing against each other, it’s most likely to be the Finals or Worlds, when everyone’s doing their best.”

“This is usually where you wish your rinkmates luck.”

Yuuri chuckled softly. “I hope for another Feltsman sweep at Russian Nationals. Good luck, Vitya, Misha, and Georgi!”

“If Rykov steals a podium spot, how will you feel about that?”

“It depends. If he just outskates one of my rinkmates, then I’ll be disappointed for whoever it was but proud of Rykov for an excellent skate. If one of my rinkmates is injured or has some kind of emergency, I’ll probably ignore Rykov out of concern for my rinkmate, especially if it’s my husband.”

They left him alone after that, and Yuuri got into a seat having only missed the first group and a half. No one Yuuri knew had skated yet. All three of the ladies he knew were skating in the last group. Still, he always enjoyed watching the ladies. Yuuko’s skate was beautiful, not as good as it had been in the Finals, but good enough. Iona beat her, but Sako didn’t, and the three of them were the top of the scoreboard.

Viktor called after the ladies’ event finished. “You and Yuuko did beautifully! I’m so proud.”

“Thanks, Vitya! Yakov’s on his way out to you. He should be able to get there in plenty of time for your short program.”

“I’m sorry we’re stealing him from your free skate. He won’t even be able to watch.”

“He knew that when he decided to go with me. I’ll be okay. Minako’s here.”

 

The next day, Mari was yawning. “Did you not sleep?” Yuuri asked.

Mari shrugged. “Yuuko has a competition. Her parents took Axel, Takeshi’s parents took Lutz, and I took Loop. She was kinda fussy. Better me than Yuuko, we figured. Minako offered so I could go out, but she’s coaching. I’m just cheering and babysitting.”

“Babysitting?”

“Yuuko’s parents keep the girls while you’re skating so Yuuko can be there to watch you, I watch them while Yuuko’s skating so they can go watch her. Takeshi’s parents will have them during the exhibition. I don’t mind. Gives me time to get some studying done, or texting. Bin said to tell you good luck, by the way.”

“Bin?” Yuuri tried to remember a Bin that Mari would be friends with.

“You know, Chinese skater?”

“I know who he is. Just surprised you’re texting him.”

“I’m helping him learn English, he’s helping me learn Chinese for school. He’s a nice guy.”

 

No surprises out of the early groups this time, so Yuuri got a lot of studying done. Togai continued to impress, getting near 160. Sachio and Ichizo both got in the high 160s. Yuuri had a nice easy path to gold, if he could just keep himself calm.

It did not get off to a promising start, as he landed his quad flip on his ass. He recovered easily enough, landing a triple loop and then getting into a very comfortable layback spin. From there, everything went smoothly, and the swashes all got thoroughly buckled. Yuuri’s score was just a little over 179, which was good, if somewhat disappointing. It was still an eighteen-point win.

Yuuko ended up with her second gold, and she felt much better about this one. Iona had struggled but she was perfectly happy with her silver. Tamae was there to congratulate them both.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Russian Nationals
> 
> Timeline: December 25-26, 2011

Viktor’s birthday began with a phone call from Yuuri. “Good morning, my wonderful beloved husband who is cruelly kept from me on his birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day and land all your jumps cleanly.”

Viktor closed his eyes and laid back against the pillow with a giant smile. “You’re ridiculous and I love you so much. So proud of you, my love! Don’t let Captain Hook get complacent just because Peter Pan isn’t there to chase him.”

“I won’t.” Yuuri giggled. “How is everything in Russia?”

“Cold, and I don’t have my favorite heater to keep my bed warm.”

“Japan’s warmer, but my bed’s still so cold when I get into it. Last time for a while, though, right?”

“Yes! Once we’re back together we get to stay together for a nice long time. Other than that things are good, Yakov got in all right, he’s skipping practice this morning in favor of some sleep because he trusts the three of us to do our jobs. Are you going to stay up and watch?”

“I’m hoping to catch you, but I’m leaving for Hasetsu right after the exhibition, so I may not get to see it all. If I don’t, you know I’ll watch it first thing in the morning.”

“Don’t forget to get some sleep in there! I love you.”

“I love you too. Happy birthday.”

 

Viktor felt bad, lying to Yuuri, but Yuuri would only worry and there wasn’t anything he could do. The nausea was mostly gone, but on Lilia’s orders, he’d left morning practice early in favor of hoping to sleep this stomach bug off a bit more before trying to get back out there and skate. He could not imagine anything less sexy than how he’d spent the night.

Yakov was pissed when he came to get Viktor. “Tell me this isn’t a hangover or stupid food poisoning.”

Viktor would be offended, but he had to admit Yakov had good reason to jump to those conclusions. “It’s not a hangover, and it’s not food poisoning, I don’t think. No one else is sick, are they? I haven’t eaten anything Misha or Georgi or Sasha or Rykov didn’t.”

“Okay. You know, you’re Viktor Nikiforov, World Record Holder. You could probably withdraw and still get assigned to Europeans and Worlds.”

“Probably, but that’s not really fair to Rykov or Yulian or Vadim or whoever it is who ends up bumped to alternate because I’m getting special treatment. I can skate. It won’t be my best performance, and if I don’t feel better tomorrow, I will withdraw from the free skate. Okay?”

Yakov nodded. “Have you thrown up in the last six hours?”

“I’m twelve hours vomit-free. That stage is over. I’m not going to create a biohazard on the ice.”

“All right. Do your best. Don’t make yourself worse.”

 

Viktor warmed up diligently. Sick or not, there was no sense not getting properly stretched out and hurting himself. Misha was a little surprised to see him. Rykov walked over to him. “Surprised you’re here. You sure you’re up for this?”

“Trying to psych me out?” Viktor winked.

“No. Good luck.”

Viktor ignored the first two groups, trying to figure out what he had in the tank for this program. Would he be able to go for both quads, or should he drop the Lutz to a triple? If he medaled, he was going to Europeans and Worlds, that wasn’t a problem. Like Yakov said, they would take his world records, his history of excellence, and his illness into account and most likely conclude that he was a better choice than any of the others. 

At the end of the second group, he checked the scores. Only one above 70. Not bad. Vadim and Yulian both got in the mid-seventies, and then Rykov went out and put up an 81. Viktor applauded for him – that was well done. Georgi beat him, and Misha’s 88 made up Viktor’s mind about the Lutz.

He skated well, but his quad toe loop-triple loop combo was weaker than usual, and he struggled to get the full rotation on the quad Lutz. The only element that wasn’t weak, by his usual standards, was his triple axel, and that was just because he was so relieved to be done that he threw everything he had left into it. He hadn’t been this tired after a short program in years.

Yakov was silent as Viktor sat waiting for his scores, which had him very worried. When the 90 came up, Yakov clapped his shoulder. “Go get some sleep, Vitya. See you at practice.”

 

In the morning, when Viktor got to practice, Yakov sat him down with the video of his performance and started in on him. Viktor took it in, and when Yakov was done, looked up at him. “Why didn’t you do this last night?”

“Wouldn’t have done any good. You were too tired to listen.”

“I thought you were mad at me for skating!” Viktor jumped to his feet and hugged Yakov. “Or for going for the quad Lutz despite being sick.”

Yakov hugged back. “Every now and then it does you some good to be scared. I wasn’t mad, this time. How are you feeling?”

“Better.”

“Have you talked to Yuuri yet?”

“No. I’m going to call him after practice if he doesn’t call me during.” Yakov gave him a skeptical look, but nodded.

 

When he did call, he could tell Yuuri wasn’t happy with him. “Were you going to tell me you’re sick?”

“I didn’t want you worried about me – if it got bad enough that I had to withdraw, I would, but I didn’t want to ruin your day when there wasn’t anything you could do.”

“Vitya…”

“There’s nothing you can do, but it’s not like I’m in any danger of death unless you decide to kill me for not telling you. I don’t want you dropping your vacation to come out here.”

“Fine, but when you get here, you are letting me take care of you for a day or two since I couldn’t be there when you needed it, dammit. Are you feeling better?”

“Yes. I should be putting up a much better showing tonight.”

“You’d better.”

“Do you think Yakov would let me get away with saying I’m sick and can’t skate in the exhibition?”

“No. Unless you really are sick, in which case you really shouldn’t be getting on a plane. You’ll be here soon, Vitya.”

“Not soon enough. I’m going to miss most of the 29th.”

“I know, but it’ll just make it even more special when you do get here. I love you.”

“Love you too. I’m going to take a nap.”

“Sleep well. Be sure and tell Georgi happy birthday for me!”

 

Once again, Viktor ignored the first two groups. No one was likely to break out, so he could focus on the ones who went to the Grand Prix. The parade of scores under 150 when Viktor did finally look at the scoreboard confirmed his thinking. Even Yulian struggled and missed the 150 mark. Rykov got into the low 160s, Georgi high 160s, and Misha over 170. Another good year for Yakov Feltsman.

Viktor proved right away that he felt better, getting his quad flip-double toe loop combo clean, and looking good through the first few elements. He struggled a bit with his triple flip-triple toe loop-double toe loop combo, but nothing major, and from there he was clean if not spectacular. Good enough for gold, probably, but he’d need to work on it before Europeans or Worlds. Especially Worlds, where he’d be competing against Yuuri. His score here was virtually the same as Yuuri’s from Japan.


	24. Chapter 24

Viktor swept Yuuri up in his arms as soon as he got to the airport. “My love, my Yuuri, I swear that it is you and only you I’m thinking about on the ice this season, please believe me.”

“This was ever a question in anyone’s mind other than the idiots who are determined to make our lives difficult?” Yuuri hugged back. “You may have been replaced as my cutest supporter, but you’re still my favorite, and the girls are going to grow out of their baby cuteness eventually. You’ll never grow out of your cuteness.”

“Even if I go bald? I know how much you love my hair.”

“You’ve promised to love me if I get fat after I retire, I think I can promise to love you even if you go bald.” Yuuri kissed Viktor’s forehead. “Let’s get home, huh? You’re spending most of tomorrow in bed if I have to tie you there.”

“Ooo, is that a promise?” Viktor liked the sound of that. Being completely at Yuuri's mercy...

Yuuri crossed his arms and glared. “You’re in serious trouble, Vitya. I told Mom that you were skating through sickness when she asked why you looked so tired at the end of your short program.”

“And?”

“And she feels like a bad mother for not knowing one of her boys was in trouble and finding some way to help.”

“Noooo! Mama Hiroko is the best mother I could ever have imagined!” Viktor would have to find some way to make it up to her.

 

When they got to Yu-Topia, it was late enough that everyone was in bed, much to Viktor’s disappointment. He wanted to hug Hiroko and apologize for worrying her, but he wasn’t going to get her out of bed for that. He woke up early the next morning and went down to the kitchen. “Mama Hiroko?”

Hiroko nearly tackled him. “I was so worried! Are you feeling better now? Do you need anything? Is my son treating you right?”

“I feel much better now.” Viktor hugged her back. “I’m sorry for worrying you. Yuuri’s taking very good care of me now that I’m letting him.”

“Oh, you’re letting me, which is why despite your promise to stay in bed I woke up to find you gone?” Yuuri grumbled.

“I’m coming right back, but I needed to apologize to Mama Hiroko right away,” Viktor protested.

“Get back to bed, Vicchan,” Hiroko said. “I’ll be up in a bit with some breakfast and tea, unless Yuuri decides to take it himself.”

 

It was two days before Yuuri let Viktor get out of bed, although he didn’t seem to have any objection to Viktor exerting himself while _in_ bed. He’d drafted Hiroko and Mari to help keep Viktor where he belonged while he went to the Ice Castle or to play with the triplets. Mari, at least, had been sympathetic. “You should have told him, but he’s being ridiculous about punishing you for it.”

Viktor dropped his phone. “Does that mean you’ll let me get up and walk around?”

“Nope. If Mom catches us, then I’m in the doghouse too. You don’t speak any Chinese, do you?”

“No… why? Yuuri’s the foreign language expert, but I don’t think Chinese is among them.”

“Just wondering." Mari held up a textbook. "Studying. It’s easier than English, but with English, I had Yuuri around to practice with. Bin’s great, but it’s not the same.”

“Does he speak Japanese?”

“No. Aside from a few basics I’ve taught him, anyway. His English isn’t bad, just limited, so that’s how we talk.”

“Sorry I can’t help. Learning Japanese was really hard, so I’ve never even tried Chinese. No good reason.”

Mari raised an eyebrow at him. “And there is a good reason for Italian?”

“Of course! Yuuri’s taking it." Viktor winked at Mari. "Also, I'm supposed to learn a foreign language, and I’m already fluent in French.”

“Why’s Yuuri taking it?”

“I don’t know. They don’t offer Thai or Czech so next up were the Crispinos?”

Mari chuckled. “Sounds like Yuuri.”

 

They got back to Russia to find everyone else hard at work. Yuri, in particular, was laser focused, with his next competition only a week away. Yakov worked Viktor hard, and Yuuri worked himself just as hard. Off the ice, they didn’t see as much of Yuri as usual, since Yuri was off with Irina and Boris most of the time.

Of course, Viktor and Yuuri invited them over for dinner one night so they could meet the hell-beasts that terrorized Potya into turning traitor. Yuuri even made katsudon for them. Boris loved the dogs, causing Yuri to roll his eyes and inform Irina, “You people better not corrupt Natasha. I taught her better than that.”

Irina smiled. “I don’t think you have to worry about that. She loves cats too much. She might get a dog, because of Boris’s allergies, but she won’t abandon her love for cats. It is possible to love both, you know.”

“I was thinking maybe a hamster or something. Dogs and apartments tend not to be a good combination, especially with as much as we’re gone during the day,” Boris said.

Viktor started giggling, and Yuuri kicked him. “Sorry about him. My fanclub has the nickname Hamster Brigade thanks to one of the founders.”

“Do you have a fanclub yet, Yuri?” Boris asked.

Yuri scowled. “I don’t think so, unless I count your buddy. These two and Mila and their friends don’t count.”

“I bet we could get Phichit to start one for you, he has experience!” Viktor said, earning himself a kick from Yuri.

“I don’t want a fanclub. I’m going to get one eventually, and I know it’s useful to show sponsors you’re popular and people will buy stuff because you say to, but do I have to engage with them?”

Viktor shook his head. “Not really. Do a couple appearances for them, make sure they get early notice of merchandise or shows or extra competitions, and they’re happy. Yuuri’s fanclub is unusual because of the media presence, which I expect will cover you too. The Hamsters get out in full force for me, and to some extent for any of our friends.”


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skate Helena and Yuri's life is ruined.

The trip to Belgrade was short, at least. After this competition, Boris was going home. It had been nice having Mama around, but Yuri was very ready to be rid of Boris. He hadn’t been horrible, but he’d been Boris.

Once they got checked in, Irina decided that they needed to go explore the city. “It’s more fun than staying cooped up in the hotel the whole time. You’ve never gone out?”

Yuri shook his head at Irina's scandalized face. “I went to laser tag once. I’m ten, Mama, wandering around a city where I don’t speak the language by myself isn’t the greatest idea.”

“Smart boy,” Boris said. “But we’re with you, so Yakov shouldn’t mind as long as we don’t mess you up for competing.”

While they were out, Irina stopped off to do some shopping. Yuri found an adorable stuffed kitten that he bought for Natasha, and then pulled out his phone to play games while waiting for Irina to finish. Boris came over to him. “Yuri?”

“What?”

“Just wanted to remind you that if you see Lev and he creeps you out again, go get someone. Or even just if you see him and don’t want to let him creep you out again, get one of us and point him out so we know what he looks like.” Boris paused. “Actually, I have an idea. If you see him, ask him to take a picture with you.”

“Ew. Why?”

“Fans like taking pictures with their idols. If he really is just a fan, he’ll jump at the chance. If he’s not just a fan, if he’s after you for something, he won’t want evidence of him knowing you.”

“Huh.” As much as Yuri hated to admit it, Boris knew what he was talking about. It was good advice.

“Taking pictures with fans is something you’ll need to get used to, too.”

“Yeah, I know. Viktor and Katsudon are family, remember? I get to see all the celebrity crap.”

 

Yuri didn’t see Lev around any of the practices. He did notice someone staring at him, though. The first day, he ignored it. A lot of people stared at him because he was Irina’s son and resembled her, or because they recognized him as Viktor and Yuuri’s rinkmate. The girl wasn’t setting off creep alarms, at least.

The second day, Yuri was a little more bothered by it. For one thing, today, she’d brought a friend. For another, they were staring and pointing and giggling. Yakov noticed his distraction. “Ignore them. They’re just obsessive skating fans. Go skate.”

“What’s the deal with triples here?” Yuri asked.

“You shouldn’t need them. Emil’s not practicing them, so I’m going to say no.”

“Fine. I can do that.” Yuri skated off, practicing hard on the doubles he planned to do.

 

The short program the next day was early, and Emil was still yawning when he got to the rink. “Can’t wait until I’m old enough that my coach will start letting me drink coffee.”

“I’m not sure that’s an age thing. From what I heard from Mila, I think that’s a the last thing you need is more energy thing.”

Emil cracked up. “Okay, true! Who’s that dude with your mom?”

Yuri made a face. “His name’s Boris. She’s marrying him next summer.”

Emil winced sympathetically. “Oh, fun. Good luck.”

“Thanks.” Yuri checked the laces on his skates to make sure they were tied right. “Why didn’t you move up? Aren’t you the same age as Mila?”

“Close, but not close enough. My birthday’s in July, so I didn’t turn thirteen in time. Next year!” Emil lightly punch Yuri’s arm. “Good thing, too, buys me more time before I’m losing to you. If you’re this good now, you’re going to be a terror next year.”

Yuri smiled. “Yeah. I am. I have to be.”

“I know Mila’s probably said it, but you really should lighten up. Too much pressure and even the toughest nut will crack, you know? You don’t have to be the best right away.”

“You’re just saying that because you’re scared I’m going to beat you.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

Yuri had to go then, get on the ice and be a mischievous cat. It was fun, and he performed well, hitting his jumps cleanly and doing really well on his combination spin. He stuck to doubles, as he’d promised Yakov he would, and even went with the double salchow instead of the double Lutz he’d done in Celje. Yakov’s approval radiated even as he worked through the critique with Yuri waiting for the score. It was good – nowhere close to the NRW, and below Celje, but considering the lower base score, it was fine. Yakov was pleased, so Yuri shoved down the disappointment and acted happy with it.

Emil beat him, but not by much. Like Yuri, he’d stuck to doubles, which limited how much better he could be. As he left the rink, he heard a girl screaming his name. She had a sign and a pair of cat ears. Yakov would have let him hide, he thought, but Irina made him go over. “Hi. Nice ears.”

“Thank you!” The girl held out a sharpie and a stuffed cat. “Can I have your autograph? The cat’s name is Yuri, after you.”

“Uh, sure.” Yuri took the Sharpie and signed the cat. After a nudge from Irina, he added, “Thanks for coming to support me today.”

 

There was a small group of girls there the next morning, much to Yuri’s annoyance. One of them started screaming when she saw him. Yuri ignored them while he warmed up, and did his best to tune them out when he had to go skate. It wasn’t easy, and he tripped himself up on his step sequence thanks to his lack of focus. He got through the rest of the skate just fine, at least, and it gave Yakov something to talk about.

Yakov spent a lot of time encouraging Yuri to learn to focus and ignore fans when he needed to skate. “It’s unusual to see you having to deal with it this young, or I’d have worked with you some on tuning out distractions. It’s probably a good thing, in the long run, but I know it’s annoying right now.” Yuri’s score was the lowest it had ever been, but not terribly so, and more than good enough to give him another silver medal.

For their last night in Belgrade, Irina and Boris took Yuri out to dinner. While they were out, Yuri’s phone rang, and he answered it. “Phichit?”

“Hi, Yuri! Congratulations. You have your very own fan club already!”

“I do? What? Why?”

“I don’t know! I was just searching to see if your results were online yet, and I found a website for a group calling themselves Yuri’s Angels. It’s small, but if it exists already I bet it doesn’t stay that way long. I’m checking with the Hamsters and our friends over in Viktor’s fanclub to see if it was any of us who started it, but nothing yet.”

“Thanks, Phichit.” Yuri hung up and shoved his dinner away. He wasn’t hungry anymore.


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finals and off to Europeans!
> 
> Timeline: late January 2012

Normally, Yuuri was much more relaxed than Viktor in the weeks leading up to Europeans. After all, he wasn’t skating, he was just going with Viktor to sit in the stands. This year was different. This year, there were exams the week before Europeans. As soon as Yuri left for Skate Helena, Yuuri went into full study mode. For once, it was Viktor making Yuuri stay at the rink just a little longer. At least Viktor seducing Yuuri away from the books to come to bed was normal. Viktor always made it worthwhile, too, letting Yuuri try new things or do things that felt comfortable and familiar, whatever he wanted.

The day before his first final, Yuuri was supposed to be taking a rest day. It had been a while since he needed to ignore his rest and dance, but he’d been studying until the letters were swimming on the page and he was mixing up Italian verb conjugations with names of Popes and kings and characters from Russian literature. Lilia and Yuri were waiting for him in the studio. “Stretch out properly. Four Continents isn’t so far that I can have you hurting yourself.”

Yuuri smiled and got to stretching. Thanks to Lilia and Minako’s training, he was still unusually flexible for a grown man, although not as flexible as he’d been in his early teens. Stretching felt good, and he could feel his brain shutting down and letting him focus. Even better, he could feel his anxiety shutting down and leaving him alone.

Yuuri didn’t want to know how much research Lilia had put into this. She’d found tutorials for dance styles Yuuri had never heard of, and at Yuri’s insistence, they worked through a breakdance routine as well. It was fun, and sometimes even with as much dance training as he’d had Yuuri had trouble getting his body to move the way it was supposed to.

While they took a break to rest, Yuri had another suggestion. “Hey, can we do some martial arts next time? Like ninja stuff?”

Lilia held back the smile as she looked to Yuuri. “It probably wouldn’t hurt anything, and I know Viktor would love to see Yuuri finally taking some sort of interest in ninjas.” Yuuri buried his face in his hands while he laughed. “In all seriousness, it might not be a bad idea for you to learn some form of self-defense. Both of you. Yuuri, had you thought at all about summer dance classes yet?”

“Well, Viktor and I are continuing our private lessons from the last couple years, but other than that, no.”

“One of these days, I want to see what you and Viktor are learning,” Lilia said.

Yuuri tried his hardest not to blush. “It’s… I can’t show you here, there’s… we need equipment that’s not set up in here.”

Lilia raised an eyebrow, but let it drop. “You might consider doing a martial arts class. It could be useful on the ice, and you might be glad of it off the ice at some point. I can’t imagine you’d have any trouble convincing Viktor to join you.”

 

During Finals week, Yakov made Yuuri keep his practice basic. Run through his routines, yes, but focus on things he could do already. It really was just as well, and even seeing Viktor working normally didn’t get to him. Viktor couldn’t afford to take it easy, not with Europeans the next week.

When Yuuri turned in his last final, he thought he might collapse from the relief of it. Viktor teased him mercilessly for the next day, until their results were posted. They’d both passed, with good marks, and they had the next two weeks off. From school, anyway. There was still Europeans to get through, and then Yuuri would need to focus hard on his practice because Four Continents was earlier than usual.

Getting to Sheffield was nice. Viktor was ridiculously excited about it. “You liked it enough to make it worth meeting Rykov here! I can’t wait to see it with you,” he explained when Yuuri asked about the enthusiasm. Yuuri just shook his head. Viktor was ridiculous. “A shame the kids couldn’t come, but nothing to be done about it.” Yuri was in the Dragon Trophy the next week, and Russian Junior Nationals was immediately after. “I think Yakov’s looking forward to April.”

“He always is.” Yuuri smiled, but then he realized something. “There’s the Team Trophy this year, so it’ll be almost May before we’re done. When are we doing vacation this year? We’ve got class through the middle of June…”

“July, after assignments come out. He’ll make us work a little harder in May and June to make up for it, but Yakov understands. Missing class for skating is one thing, missing for vacation our professors won’t put up with.”

Yuuri relaxed. “Good to know. Oh, hey, there’s Michele and Sara!” He waved to them.

“Hi! How did exams go?” Michele said.

“Good! Thanks for all your help.” Yuuri hugged them both, and Viktor forced down the laughter at Michele’s irritation with Yuuri hugging Sara.

Sara hugged Viktor as well, sticking her tongue out at Michele first. “Shame Mila couldn’t come. Tell her I said good luck next week.”

 

The first two days were preliminaries, which none of them had to participate in, so they gathered around for tourism and shopping. Sara and Michele were missing, having gone with Emily to her home town of Manchester, but they were joined by Lukas and Dominic.

While they waited for a steel demonstration, Viktor found Kamil. “How’s Nadiya doing?”

“She’s understandably frustrated with being on bed rest and needing me or Anatolij or Olesya or one of her parents to take care of her. The baby’s doing fine, though, which is the important thing to both of us. She’ll get back on her feet soon.”

“Do you know boy or girl yet?”

“Girl, but we haven’t started talking names yet. She’s due April 3rd, so who knows. I may end up withdrawing from Worlds or skipping the exhibition skate or something. Anatolij and Olesya are competing unless one of them gets hurt, but I’m not missing the birth of my little princess for a competition.”

“Good man.” Viktor hugged him. “Next time, try to get her due in May?”

“If there is a next time. As rough as this one’s being on Nadiya, I wouldn’t blame her if she said no more.”

“Do you know what the chances are for your baby being deaf too?”

Kamil shrugged. “Nadiya’s pretty sure it’s genetic, there’s a fair bit of deafness in her family, but since there’s never been any in mine it’s hard to say. Because of Nadiya we’re already prepared for the possibility, so we’ll be watching for signs and get whatever intervention we need to help her with language development.”


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Europeans. Medals are earned or lost and Yuuri surprises Viktor.
> 
> January 25-29, 2012

Day 3 was pairs skating and ice dancing. Masumi and Jolanda had a good skate, putting them on top, while Anya and Christov were in second. Anatolij was a bit distracted, which messed with him and Olesya. They were in seventh, and Kamil was worried.

“Nadiya’s fine as far as I know, Kamil. Relax.” Anatolij hugged him. “We can come back. Might even medal, if I can get it together. Don’t worry so much.”

“If you say so.” Kamil still headed off to call Nadiya.

 

Men skated their short program on day 4. Viktor drew into the second group, as did Florentin, Christophe, and Lukas. “Oh, sure, this won’t be pressure at all, going between the two guys who can do a quad Lutz,” Lukas joked. “Hope I can at least be entertaining enough for my mom to remember I even skated.”

Viktor patted his shoulder. “You’ll do fine. It is bad luck on the draw, though.”

Christophe set a huge lead, his 85 well above Florentin’s second-place 73. Lukas ended up behind Florentin, but his program was clean and it was fun to watch. Viktor was the last in that group. He started off well, with his combo coming down clean and his quad Lutz the best he’d ever managed in competition. Everything clicked better than they had at Nationals, and his final score of 92 was his best for the year. He was pretty sure it would hold up.

Viktor had plenty of time between the end of his skate and Georgi’s skate at the end of group 3 to get changed and out into the stands to sit with Yuuri. “I hate you for drawing so early. At least it’s only pairs after this so we can leave as soon as you’re done with the press.”

“I’m sorry, love. I really hope you draw before me at Worlds so you can watch without it messing up your skate.” Viktor kissed Yuuri’s cheek and settled in. “Anything amazing that I missed?”

“Not unless you count Joel Opik’s camel spin. He messed up the flying entry badly enough to fall.”

“Wow.” Viktor shook his head and tightened his arm around Yuuri.

Georgi did well, though only good enough for third place. The fourth group had some good skaters, but Misha was easily the standout, getting up above 90. In the last group, Michele did very well for his first Europeans. He wasn’t likely to make the final group, but he’d be close. Kamil and Kaleb knocked him down to eighth, while Aaron continued to look bad compared to what he’d once been. Viktor felt bad for the last skater, a Turkish skater who ended up just barely making the free skate.

“Viktor! We all remember you were instrumental in getting Yuuri’s official fan club set up. Is Yuri’s Angels your doing?”

“All I did was ask our joint fanclub to get one going for my Yuuri. Phichit Chulanont did the work." Yuuri cuddled up against Viktor in thanks. "As far as Yuri’s Angels… I didn’t even have that much to do with it. Phichit says he had nothing to do with it.”

“Are you surprised he already has a fanclub?”

“Not in the least. He’s doing very well in his first year in novices, and he was already somewhat known because of his association with me and my husband.”

“You didn’t get your fanclub until you were in Juniors. Are you jealous?”

Viktor held back the laugh, but only just. “No. If by some miracle Yuri had made it to Juniors without developing a fanclub, I’d have asked Phichit to get one going, but novices is a time to get used to competitions and international travel and being in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Dealing with the fame and the lights and all that as well is asking a lot of a ten-year-old. I know Yuri is grateful to have the support, though!”

Misha and Georgi had also gotten asked about Yuri’s Angels, much to Yakov’s annoyance. They said mostly the same things. “Yuuri, if you get asked at Four Continents…”

“I’m sure I will. I know what I’m going to say.”

Yakov sighed. “Anything different than what these three said?”

“Only in throwing some more love to Phichit for all his hard work. He'd never forgive me if I didn't.”

 

The next day started with the ladies’ short program. Emily had the lead, with Sara in third after Finland’s Saila. Raisa put Russia in the final group, along with France’s Rachelle Mossé and Hungary’s Nikolett Csatár. Michele was so proud of his sister that it was a good thing he didn’t have to skate that day. “She’s in medal position already, and Saila sucks at the free skate! She has a great chance.”

The other event of the day was the free dance, where Anatolij kept his promise to do better and skate well. It wasn’t enough to get them up into the medals, but it was enough for fourth. Kirill and Katya took bronze, Anya and Christov silver, and Masumi and Jolanda claimed another gold.

 

On the last day of competitions, the men’s free skate came first. Lukas’s free skate was lovely, skating to “Part of Your World,” which he’d said was in honor of Copenhagen’s association with The Little Mermaid. Michele also did very well, and his score held up to let him pass Dominic for first place after the third group. Kamil and Kaleb both did well, too. Then Georgi struggled a bit, dropping him into third. Chris messed up his quad Lutz and a triple flip-triple loop combination, which put him down to fourth and guaranteed Kaleb a medal. Misha had another great skate, claiming the lead.

Viktor took the ice full of confidence. Misha’s 177 was great, but beatable. He hit his quad flip-double toe loop combo well. The combination he’d messed up at Nationals went smoothly, and he hit his big jumps easily. Four clean quads in one competition. Another first for him. Yakov had quite a lot to say, but 181 was still an amazing score.

Viktor’s plan was to find Yuuri and then find the press. The first part happened, but Yuuri didn’t give him a chance to do the second part before he dragged Viktor off without a word to find a broom closet. Viktor decided not to complain about wanting to get through interviews so he could get to the ladies’ skate in time to watch Sara when Yuuri blocked the closet door and shoved Viktor against the back wall.

They’d only missed two groups when Viktor and Yuuri made it back to the stands. Christophe leaned over. “I’d offer congratulations, but after Yuuri’s I don’t think you need any more.”

Viktor stuck out his tongue at Chris. “You’re probably right.”

“Never would have figured Yuuri for the type," Chris said.

Yuuri reddened, but he was smiling. Viktor grinned and put an arm around Yuuri’s shoulders. “You know how I love my surprises!”

Raisa and Rachelle both did very well in their free skates. Michele was somewhat disappointed when Sara’s free skate wasn’t good enough to catch Rachelle, although she did hold off Raisa. As usual, Saila dropped, guaranteeing Sara a medal, and Emily won to take gold and give Sara bronze. Yuuri squeezed Michele’s hand. “It’s still a medal at Europeans, even if it’s not the silver you were hoping for after yesterday.”

“True! Thank you. I’m so proud of her.”

The press caught up to them as they walked out of the stands. “Viktor! Where did you disappear to after your medal ceremony?”

Viktor winked at the camera. “If I told you, I wouldn’t be able to hide there again next time!”

“This makes four European Championship golds in a row for you. How does that feel?”

Viktor looked to Yuuri, who nodded. “I hadn’t even realized. It’s very exciting, although I don’t take it for granted. There are so many good skaters here.”

“But not the one person who seems capable of beating you.”

“What are you talking about? He’s right here!” Viktor hugged Yuuri. “Misha, Chris, Kaleb, Kamil, Georgi… any of them could beat me. I’m winning, but it’s never a guarantee. You’re also forgetting Cao Bin! If he can beat Yuuri, he can beat me, right?”

“Yuuri, there are rumors that Bin is dating your sister. Can you confirm those rumors?”

Yuuri blinked and exchanged a quick glance with Viktor. “No. They’re friends, but if they’re dating, Mari hasn’t said anything to me about it.”

“What would you think of it? They’re obviously not soulmates, and you and Viktor have strong views about that.”

“I don’t try to dictate to anyone else what to do with their soulbond. Even if I did, I think there are very good reasons why it wouldn’t apply to Bin and Mari.”

“And you’d be okay with him as a brother-in-law?”

“My other brother-in-law is Rykov. Why would I have a problem with Bin? As long as Mari’s happy, I’ll support her choice if she decides she wants to date someone.”

 

Viktor expected to be skating SexyBack by himself. He could see Yuuri's nerves when he skated out and joined him, but Yuuri kept his eyes on Viktor the whole time and managed to dance with him. There was a lot of screaming as the music ended and Yuuri and Viktor skated off hand in hand.


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Dragon Trophy. Yuri learns a bit more about his fan club.

They had only been back two days when Yakov left to take Yuri to Ljubljana. Yuri was excited about the competition, so he was rather surprised to find there were only two other boys there. He’d get a medal, but where was the fun? He recognized one of them, French skater Richard DuBois, who couldn’t do a double axel even. The other boy, he didn’t recognize at all. Neither did Yakov. “Do you still want to do these next year, knowing that the competition isn’t that great?”

Yuri shrugged. “There’s still prize money, exposure, and it’s fun.”

“Even without triples?”

“Even without triples. It’ll be more fun when I get into Juniors and triples aren’t a question, but I’ll deal.”

“Very well. I’ll talk to your mom and Kolya and make sure they’re okay with it, but it shouldn’t be a problem.”

 

Once again, there were fangirls at the practice session. Yakov encouraged Yuri to ignore them, which Yuri had no problem with. He also noticed Richard staring at him. That one, he couldn’t ignore as much. “What do you want?”

Richard jumped. “I’m just surprised to see you here. My coach thought there was a mistake on the list. You’re good enough, you could be in Juniors.”

“Yeah, I’m also ten. The ISU won’t let me.”

Richard shook his head. “Not the point. Why bother with a competition like this one? For your fanclub to have another chance to come see you?”

“Sponsors. I really don’t care about my fanclub." Off Richard's skeptical look, Yuri added, "I found out I had one when they showed up at Skate Helena.”

“So Viktor really didn’t set it up for you?”

“Viktor likes surprises but he’ll take credit for them once they happen. He’d have told me if he set it up. I have no idea who did it.”

“What do you need sponsors for anyway? Doesn’t Viktor buy you whatever you want?”

“I don’t ask Viktor for anything. He and Yuuri are not my parents, dammit." Richard took a step back and held up his hands, and Yuri dialed back the snarl.

“Fair enough. I didn’t mean to offend you. Good luck.”

“Thanks. You too.”

 

Yuri was on edge the before the short program, constantly looking around for fangirls or Lev. Fangirls, he saw a couple of, but there was no sign of Lev. That had Yuri feeling a little conflicted – on the one hand, no creep. On the other, no chance to point him out or get a picture of him to show Yakov or Boris. Also, if Lev was just a fan, Yuri could use him. Proof to sponsors that he appealed to more than annoying girls. Probably, like Richard, Lev hadn’t expected him to be here, but that didn’t explain why he didn’t show for Skate Helena.

Yuri started well, but on his double axel, he fell. He picked himself up and tried to get back into things, become the cat again, but he struggled. Yakov didn’t take it easy, ripping him apart. “Falls happen, Yuri. You need to learn to shake them off better than that. If you fall on the first jump of your program, you can’t let it mess up your entire skate.” For the first time ever, Yuri’s score was below 30, although it was still good for first place by quite a lot.

Yuuri and Viktor echoed Yakov’s advice. Yuuri in particular was sympathetic. “That was a hard thing for me to learn, and I fall a lot. Not nearly as much now as I used to when I was in novices, but you’re never immune.”

“I know. It just sucks. Better here than somewhere it might cost me a medal, I guess. Thanks for the pep talk.”

 

For the free skate, there were more fangirls. Still no sign of Lev. Yuri could easily handle the scores, but he wanted to show that he’d shaken yesterday off. His double axel was much better, and he shook off the bad skate the day before to prove that he hadn’t just been lucky so far. This time, he got stuffed animals thrown to him. He’d have to get a message to his fanclub – he avoided two poodles to snag a lion. Yakov still had a lot to say, but he was happier with Yuri’s overall performance. His score still ended up lower than it had been, but 47 was still eight points higher than Richard’s, and his 76 was plenty good enough to take gold.

The lion turned out to be thrown by Mila. As annoying fangirls went, Yuri supposed Mila was all right. She and Lilia had gotten in in time to watch Yuri skate. Mila wasn’t staying, she just came to make changing chaperones easier. Yakov wasn’t going back to Saint Petersburg. He was taking Mila straight to Khimki for Russian Juniors, while Lilia would stay with Yuri for the exhibition and then take him home. “Why didn’t you just come with me to begin with and then Mila wouldn’t have had to mess with coming out here?”

“Yakov hates missing competitions. Missing this one wouldn’t have been bad, but it’s not like Mila’s missing a day of practice, and your fan club should notice that you picked up the lion. Tigers are your favorite, but any cat is okay, correct?”

“Yeah.”

Phichit called before Yuri could call Yuuri or Viktor to tell them about the competition. That was weird. “Why are you calling me?”

“Because it’s about your fanclub. I did some digging. The website’s registered to some guy called Lev Melikov. I haven’t really dug into him at all, but Google says he used to be an ice dancer. Do you know him?”

“I think maybe I’ve met him a couple times. He’s a fan. Maybe. He kinda creeps me out.”

“Okay. Want me to keep looking?”

“Yeah. Good idea. And hey, thanks.”

“No problem. I gotta go, school, I’ll email you whatever I find.”

Yuri hung up and stared at his phone. Should he tell Boris? If Yakov were still here, he’d say something, but Yakov was traveling and would be busy. Lilia? He hadn’t told her about the creepy fan… with a sigh, he decided to text Boris.

Boris texted back quickly. He agreed with Yuri that this seemed a little creepy but pointed to Lev being a fan. If a teenager could find such a blatant connection to Yuri, it was unlikely he planned to hurt him. Boris did warn him to stay on guard – for all they knew, Lev Melikov could be a fake name.


	29. Chapter 29

As expected, Mila won Junior Nationals. Yakov went straight from there to Colorado Springs for Four Continents, where he met Viktor and Yuuri. “Ready for practice?”

“Yeah. I’m a little worried, Yuuko’s flight was supposed to have been here an hour ago and she’s not here yet, but I don’t think that will affect my skating. Mari and Takeshi and Minako were coming with her, too.”

“Hmmm. If you haven’t heard from them by your practice time tomorrow, take it easy in practice. In the meantime, it’s probably just a delayed connection and she’ll be here soon.”

“Thanks. I’ll try to believe that.”

None of the other Japanese skaters were there either, which helped Yuuri feel better about Yuuko’s absence. The Chinese skaters were, and Bin hurried over to Yuuri as soon as he saw him. “Have you heard anything from Mari? I know there was some bad weather in Tokyo.”

“I haven’t, no. I hadn’t even heard about the bad weather. Yakov thinks there was a delay, and if they couldn’t leave Tokyo on time because of the weather…”

“That’s what I keep telling myself.”

“How are you doing? I know last year, Four Continents was kind of an emotional time for you.”

Bin nodded. “I’m all right. It’s Worlds I’m worried about. Lian…” He shook his head and didn’t finish his sentence. “I saw the thing from Europeans about me and Mari. Thanks for what you said about it.”

“I’m more surprised they found out the two of you are friends than that they jumped from there to the two of you dating, honestly.”

“Oh, that was me. I’m a lot more talkative with the Chinese press, and someone asked about the woman I’d been seen hanging out with in Quebec.” Bin made a face. “As if I would be hooking up with anyone yet. Do the media people not have soulmates? Do they not understand what it means to lose one?”

Viktor hugged Bin. “I’ve often wondered if some of them have souls. If you don’t have a soul, how can you have a soulmate?”

Yuuri’s phone interrupted the conversation, and he pulled it out. “It’s Yuuko.” He answered the phone.

“Hi Yuuri! We just touched down in Denver. It won’t be too much longer before we get there. It occurred to us about ten minutes after we took off that we probably should have called you to say there was a snowstorm in Tokyo that meant we took off three hours late.”

“Don’t worry about it. Call when you get here and we’ll tell you where to meet up with us for supper or hanging out or whatever.”

 

Yuuko and the others got there late enough that they just went straight to the hotel to get some sleep. After practice the next day, everyone met up to go to the zoo and then shopping. Yuuri and Viktor got into quite the bickerfest over some shoes. For once, it was Yuuri who wanted them and Viktor who tried to talk him out of it. “Those are the ugliest thing I have ever seen!”

“But they’re comfortable, and I like them, and I think they’ll be good for my feet after skating, and when we get home I am going to sit you down and make you play through both games so you can appreciate Commander Shepard properly.”

Yuuko groaned. “Viktor, just let him get the shoes. You of all people should know that when Yuuri goes fanboy, he gets intense about it.”

“Oh, wow! Where’d you get those, Yuuri? I need a pair too!” Yuuri pointed them out to Yuhan, shooting a smirk over his shoulder at Viktor as the two got lost in a debate about whether Miranda should be in the third game of the trilogy.

 

The men’s free skate was the only event on the 9th. Through some sort of terrible luck, Paul had ended up as the first skater. If it bothered him, he didn’t show it at all, skating hard and landing his jumps easily, starting the scoring off high with an 85. Sachio, also in the first group, did well but not nearly as well as Paul. Bin, in the second group, came out strong but couldn’t quite catch Paul, getting an 84. Jude also got into the 80s. Su got close, but didn’t quite break 80. American Ben Cooper struggled a great deal, to everyone’s surprise.

Yuuri was first in the last group. He started a little nervous, stepping out of the landing on his quad toe loop, but he shook that off, thinking of Yuri watching him. With that, his step sequence as excellent, and his layback spin went perfectly. At the end of his program, his triple axel also went unusually well, and he was very proud of his skate as he headed off to Yakov. “That layback spin was great.” Of course there was criticism as well, but Yuuri glowed with the praise. His 90 put him on top, and he was pleased with his score. Clarien snuck in for the last spot in the final group over Sachio, and the day finished with Mexican skater Alfonso Garcia, whose score put him middle of the pack.

“Yuuri! Congratulations. How do you feel going into tomorrow?”

“A five-point lead is nice, but not enough to make me invincible. Paul and Bin are both excellent skaters who could overtake me.”

“Are you happy with Paul’s skate today?”

“Very. It’s always good to see my friends do well.”

 

The ladies’ short program was the next day. Kang-Hee dominated, followed by Iona, Yuuko, Skye, and Sako. Yuuko was disappointed in herself after popping a triple salchow. “I don’t mind being in third, Kang-Hee and Iona are both great, but I could have done so much better. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. You did great, and you can make it up tomorrow!” Yuuri hugged her.

In the men’s skate, Ben redeemed himself, although it wasn’t enough to get him to the top ten. Ichizo and Sachio both did well enough to make top ten, as did Yuhan and Su. Jude did well, taking the lead. Paul and Bin traded places, guaranteeing Bin at least a silver medal.

Yuuri’s skate started off so much better with a landed quad flip. He then struggled with his next jump, but had another beautiful layback spin. He underrotated a triple Lutz, but from there, everything was clean. He had a lot of fun while he was out there, swashbuckling his way to another gold medal. Yakov was very proud of him, although he had quite a lot to say about the two bad jumps. Yuuri’s score, just a hair under 186, was huge, though.

“Am I supposed to kiss your medal?” Bin asked as they stood on the podium.

“You can if you want to, but you don’t have to. Viktor will kiss it and that’s the only one I need.”

“I don’t plan on it, I think the whole thing’s silly, if that helps,” Paul said, and Yuuri grinned. Bin decided not to kiss it either, which meant that when Viktor got to him, he was the first to kiss the medal.

“You were within two points of your husband’s record from last year. Are you going to get it at Worlds?”

“Was I?” Yuuri thought it over. He was. “Huh. I don’t know. If Viktor could put up a 187 last season, chances are good he can do it again this season, so it might be another situation where I set a record just to watch Viktor break it in the same competition.”

 

The next day, Viktor and Yuuri focused in hard on their schoolwork. With the new semester came new classes, and missing the second week of class was less than ideal. At least they were going to miss less of this semester. They only stopped when it was time to go watch the ladies’ free skate.

It was fun to watch through the first three groups. In the final group, as usual, Skye stepped up her game. Yuuko continued to struggle, falling on a double axel, which dropped her below Skye. Iona and Kang-Hee held on to win, leaving Yuuko out of the medals, much to her disappointment.

Yuuri found her right away for a big hug. “I know you’re disappointed, but just think – this time last year, you weren’t even sure if you were going to skate this season. You came back from having triplets. I think that’s impressive enough!”

“Thanks, Yuuri. You’re right, just being here to be disappointed is a pretty big deal.”

For the exhibition skate, Viktor came after Yuuri as Rufio. They had a great time with it, fighting back and forth, and this time, Yuuri got to kill Viktor.


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dramasplosion 2012
> 
> Timeline: mid-February 2012

Back in Saint Petersburg, it was kinda weird having everyone at the rink. Yakov kept grumbling about being too old for this during practice, much to his skaters’ amusement. “You’re gonna be doing this for another twenty years, at least! Unless you’re going to make Yuri find a new coach,” Viktor teased.

“Or Yuri forgets the lesson about triples and starts trying quads too soon and hurts himself and quits at twenty-two.” Yakov glared at where Yuri was supposed to be practicing his double axel. “I don’t want to see so much as an overrotation for at least the next year, preferably two, understood?”

“Yes, coach.” Yuri launched into a double axel that was perfectly rotated.

Georgi picked that moment to go skidding into the wall off a bad attempt at a quad salchow. “I’m okay!” He got up and started skating, but Yakov called him off after only a few seconds. “I’m fine, Yakov.”

“Right. Why are you holding your arm like that, then?”

“It’s bruised. It’ll be all right.” Georgi tried to wave it around in proof, but the look on his face gave him away.

Yakov crossed his arms. “Go get Lidia to check it out. Better to miss a day or two now than hurt it worse and end up missing Worlds.”

 

It wasn’t long before Yakov was off again, this time to take Yuri to Feldkirch. “Emil’s here. I’ll let you know about triples once I’ve had a look at how he’s practicing.”

“Okay.”

“Watch out for fangirls. If you run into trouble, come find me.”

“Okay.”

“Try to have some fun here.”

“I will.”

 

After practice the next day, Emil found Yuri and gave him a big hug. “It’s good to see you! I’m going to miss you next year.”

“Yeah, novices will be boring without you.” Yuri shoved Emil off of him.

Emil didn’t mind, or if he did, he didn’t show it. “Are you doing a thing for your fanclub? There were quite a few Angels hanging around the lobby when I got in last night.”

“UGH. I wasn’t planning on it, but I bet Yakov makes me shake hands or something.” Yuri shuddered. “What are you gonna do now?”

“I was gonna go swimming, the hotel has an indoor pool. Want to join me?”

“I didn’t bring a swimsuit, but I can come hang out.”

“Works for me!” Yuri spent the next few hours playing games on his DS and watching Emil alternate between frolicking in the water and hanging out with his own DS beside Yuri. It was nice and relaxing, right up until the first Angel spotted them. Yuri posed for selfies and gave out handshakes and hugs and autographs. When one of the Angels started trying to kiss him, he texted Yakov for help. Yakov showed up quickly and shooed the girls off. “Are you okay, Yuri?”

“Yeah, just some of those girls don’t know the meaning of the word no.” Yuri retrieved his DS from Emil, who had held onto it for him just in case. “You all right, Emil?”

“Yeah. Also cured of the minor jealousy that you have a fanclub already. Wow did that look annoying to deal with.”

“Believe me, it was. I’m gonna go call Phichit, see if he can get me contact information to tell them to back the fuck off.” Yuri stormed off, heading for his room.

 

Phichit wasn’t very helpful. “It won’t work. It might piss a few of them off enough to make them quit the club, but the ones who are crazy enough to think it’s okay to kiss you will just ignore it. I did find some stuff on Lev, if you’re interested?”

“Yeah, okay.”

“First off, sending you a picture. You might want to sit down.”

Yuri scoffed, but when he opened the picture he wished he’d taken Phichit’s advice. That he recognized Lev as his creeper wasn’t a surprise. Lev was posing with two women. One had a silver medal that matched the one Lev was wearing, and the other one, the one with the gold medal, was his mother. “He knew Mama?”

“Yeah. There’s a lot of pictures of them together. That would explain his interest in you.”

Yuri sat on his bed. “Why wouldn’t he tell me, though?”

“It looks like they were dating. There’s pictures of them at each other’s competitions, even ones they weren’t in themselves. Even that picture I sent you, the other woman there is his ice dance partner Polina Delova. He’s a lot more interested in your mom than he is in Polina.”

Yuri looked at the picture again. Phichit was right. The arm Lev had around his mother’s waist, the way his mama was looking at Lev… “Why wouldn’t he tell me he and Mama used to date? Do you think they were soulmates?”

“Just going by ages, I’d say there’s a good chance of it. Yuri, if he is, he might be your dad.”

Yuri shivered. “Why wouldn’t he say anything to me, then? Tell me this?”

“I don’t know. I wish I could give you an answer, Yuri. You’ll have to ask him if you see him again. Bad breakup?”

“Thanks, Phichit. You sure telling the fangirls to back off won’t do any good?”

“You can try. Maybe get Viktor to help you write it, he’s great with media doublespeak.”

 

Yuri hung up and went to find Yakov. “You know how Phichit’s been digging into Yuri’s Angels for me?”

“Yes. Do you have someone to contact about their behavior?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. I’m gonna talk to Viktor when we get back. That’s not why I’m here.”

“Why are you here, then?”

“Phichit found a picture of the founder.” Yuri handed over his phone with the picture of Lev.

Yakov purpled. “I told her this would happen! I told her as soon as I heard about the fanclub that he would show up.”

“So he is my dad.”

“Yes. Have a seat, Yuri.” Yakov shut the door, and Yuri sat in the chair. “Since coming to Saint Petersburg and seeing how my skaters typically live, you must have wondered why your mama and grandpa live the way they do.”

Yuri had, occasionally. “Well, I don’t know about Misha or Georgi, but Viktor and Mila both started out with plenty of money to begin with, and Yuuri’s Viktor’s soulmate.”

“Figure skating won’t ever make you wealthy, but if you play your sponsorships right, and invest your money well, you can get quite a bit saved up so that when you retire, you can take some time and figure out what you want to do with your life.”

“With you as her coach, Mama should have been okay, then.”

“Exactly. Her retirement plan was Lev. He was her soulmate, his family isn’t quite Nikiforov level but they had quite a bit of money from oil, she could be a trophy wife. Lev seemed to be all for that.”

“So what happened?”

“You came along. She found out about you, told Lev, and a week later Lev was gone.” Yakov put his hands on Yuri’s shoulders. “Let me be very clear about one thing. This is not your fault. You weren’t even born. This is on Lev being an asshole.”

It wasn't that simple, but he appreciated Yakov trying. “So he left Mama. But Mama still had her skating money…”

“She should have, but she didn’t. When Lev left, he took everything she had. Irishka was too proud to come to me for help reconnecting with her old sponsors, so she went back to Moscow, to your grandpa. He’s the one who told me about this. The two of us, and Lilia, searched for Lev, but he left the country and we were never able to find him.”

“How could he do that to Mama? To his soulmate?”

“I don’t know, Yuri. Your mama was, understandably, furious. She refused to talk about Lev, and when you were born, she made it very clear that she wanted you to know nothing about him. When I took the sponsorship offer up to her to let you stay on with me after that first year, I told her she should tell you everything, that getting sponsor attention would likely also draw Lev out. She refused. I tried again as soon as I heard about your fanclub. Lev is the reason you grew up the way you did, your mama and grandpa’s lives are what they are. How you want to handle things with Yuri’s Angels and with Lev, if you ever meet him–”

“I have.”

Yakov went purple again. “What?! When?!”

“At the airport last summer when I went out to New York. I didn’t get a name, and I thought he was a friend of Boris’s. I ran into him again in Celje.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“At the time I had no idea who he was. He creeped me out. I did talk to Boris about his friend, and Boris set me straight, he didn’t know him.”

Yakov scowled. “And Boris just ignored it?”

“No, Boris gave me some good advice about what to do if I saw him again, I just haven’t. I don’t know what Mama’s told _him_ about Lev, but I would guess he had no idea.” Something was bothering Yuri, and it finally hit him. “Wait, my sponsor. The one you took to Mama. Is there any possibility that it’s Lev or someone working for him?”

“No. I know exactly who your sponsor is and what his motivation for sponsoring you is. As much as I wanted to keep you on, keeping you safe is more important, and neither your mama nor I would have agreed to a sponsorship we weren’t completely sure about for you.”

“Who is it?”

Yakov didn’t answer at first, but Yuri kept staring him down. “It’s Viktor.”

Yuri felt the blood draining from his face. This was the last thing he needed right now, to find out about more betrayal. “Viktor.”

“Viktor.”

“Why the fuck would Viktor do that?”

“You’ll be hitting seniors just about the time he’s starting to get old. You might get a couple years against each other, but Viktor saw himself in you and sees you as the one who’s going to replace him on top of figure skating. He wants you to have the best guidance and the best coaching, and he was willing to commit to however long it took for you to get enough sponsorship to stand on your own.”

“Fucking Viktor. Does he think he’s my papa or something?”

“No, he thinks he’s your rinkmate. He would have done this for Yuuri if Yuuri had needed it.”

“Yuuri’s his soulmate." Then again... Yuri felt sick, but he had to ask. "He’d have told me if I was his soulmate, wouldn’t he?”

“I don’t know, he may have tried to shelter you given how young you are, but when he came to me with this, I asked him. Viktor wouldn’t lie to me, not about something that important, and he said you were not.”

“How am I supposed to trust that? How am I supposed to trust any of you? You’ve all been keeping secrets from me this whole time!”

“Your mama wanted it kept secret so that you wouldn’t go looking for Lev. I disagreed, and I should have told you when Yuri’s Angels popped up, but I was respecting your mama’s wishes. I'm sorry. I should have trusted my own instincts. Viktor thought his sponsorship should be kept secret specifically so that you wouldn’t feel obligated to him or like he was trying to be your papa. The only thing you owe him for his sponsorship is to keep working hard and getting better, and now you know why I’ve been telling you that he wasn’t going to stop sponsoring you over silver medals at ten years old.”

Yuri didn’t answer. He couldn’t. This was too fucking much. He had to get out of there, find somewhere safe to be alone and try to work through everything that had just been dumped on him. He did have one more question. “Did Yuuri know?”

“I’m assuming so. I cannot imagine Viktor keeping a secret from his soulmate all this time.”

Yuri left. He wasn’t sure where he was going to go, but he needed to be out of there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *hugs the kitten*


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things Get Worse.
> 
> Yuri tries to process. It goes about as well as could be asked of a ten-year-old having everything he thought he knew about his life turned upside down.

Not knowing where he was going had huge risks, and naturally, Yuri fell victim. He should’ve known. “Yuri! Hey. Good luck tomorrow.”

“Fuck off. I’m not calling you papa and after what you did to me and Mama and Grandpa I don’t want you anywhere near me.”

Lev’s eyebrows shot up. “So you know who I am now?”

“Yeah. You’re Mama’s soulmate except that you don’t give a shit about that.”

Lev squatted to look Yuri in the eyes. “Have you considered that there are two sides to every story? I don’t know what Irishka’s told you, or Yakov, or your grandpa, or whoever decided it was time for you to know, but is it really fair to judge me without hearing my side of the story?”

“I don’t know what you could tell me that could possibly make it okay that you haven’t been there for me the last eleven years.”

“What about that I didn’t know you existed until that day I saw you in the airport? You were obviously Irishka’s son, you look so much like her, but I never knew I had a son until then. My first thought was that she had cheated on me, but you gave your patronymic as Nikolayevich, which meant she’d given you her father’s name instead of yours. She’d been sick, she said she was going home to Moscow for a few days, and then she never came back.”

“What about the money you stole from her?”

“She’d been sick, and she left bills. My own family cut me off when I went into skating. Back then, kids were taken from their families, and once I started getting enough money to pay my own way, my parents just stopped giving me anything. Your mama was my soulmate, and yes, I used her money to pay the bills she’d left behind. I thought she was coming back. She didn’t. When I realized that, I left. I went to Poland, then to Germany, where I found work and I could settle down. I never knew why Irishka left, or that there was a child. I don’t know what she told her father or Yakov, but I assume she blamed me somehow.”

“Yakov says you ran off and stole Mama’s money when she told you she was pregnant.”

“Ah.” Lev huffed. “Yes, that would explain your anger.”

“Why didn’t you tell me right away?”

“I didn’t know what, if anything, she’d told you about me. I was afraid that if I told you who I was right away, she’d have told you all kinds of lies about me, and you wouldn’t even give me a chance.”

Yuri stared at Lev. It sounded good, but… “I can’t do this right now.” He turned and walked off. Lev didn’t come after him, which Yuri wasn’t sure how to take.

 

He found a stairwell and hid under the bottom flight. No one would look for him here, at least not for a while. He had some time to sit and think and try to process everything. It was all so overwhelming. Literally everyone he trusted in his life was involved in this, potentially.

Potentially. Yuri pulled out his phone and stared at the number for a while, and then steeled himself and hit call. “Boris?”

“Yuri?” Boris sounded very surprised. The background noise dropped out, and Yuri heard what sounded like a door closing. “What’s happening? Is it Lev? Where’s Yakov or Lilia?”

“Boris, I know you don’t like me, but right now, I need someone I can trust. So I have a question for you.”

“Okay. Shoot.”

“What did Mama tell you about my real dad?”

“Not much. Just that she knows who he is and that she doesn’t ever want you to know. Personally, I think that’s a terrible policy, but you’re not my son, so I’m not going to tell your mama how to raise you.” Boris cleared his throat. “If you’re asking about the time I asked how you knew I wasn’t your father, there was a reason behind that. I didn’t know her very well, but I did know your mama from various parties back when she was still skating or just retired. A lot of those parties involved drugs and alcohol, enough that there was a possibility that we’d slept together, she got pregnant, and didn’t know who to come after for child support. She’s set me straight, told me that she knows who your father is, but she won’t tell me anything about him.”

Yuri closed his eyes and laid his head back against the wall. It sucked that fucking Boris was the one person he could turn to right now, but at least he had Boris. “It’s Lev. Yuuri’s friend Phichit was digging into him because his name’s on the website for my fanclub, and he found pictures of him and Mama from back then. Yakov confirmed it.”

“And?”

“And I just ran into Lev and he says he never knew about me, but Yakov says Mama says he ran off when she told him about me. I know you’re probably gonna take Mama’s side, but I really don’t have anyone I can ask about this.”

“What about Viktor? Or Yuuri?”

“Fuck them. I made Yakov tell me who was sponsoring me, so that I could believe that it wasn’t Lev, and it’s Viktor.”

“You didn’t know that?”

A pit opened in Yuri’s stomach. “You did?”

“Your mama told me when we started talking about getting married. I wanted to know what she was responsible for as far as your skating, and she told me that Viktor was taking care of everything as a sponsorship. I don’t know Viktor well, but I know your mama and Yakov trust him enough to agree to it. Of course, I thought you knew. What kind of irresponsible person wouldn’t make sure you knew who the money was coming from so people couldn’t take advantage of you?”

“Mama and Yakov and Viktor, apparently.”

“So it would seem. Yuri, I don’t know what to tell you. Of course, my instincts are telling me that Irishka’s telling the truth and Lev is the liar, now that you’re starting to make a name for yourself he’s trying to ingratiate himself to you so that he can take your money like he did Irishka’s, but I’m biased. The one thing I can tell you is that Lev creeped you out before you knew who he was. I’m no expert on fathers, but I do know a thing or two about people who prey on children for one reason or another. The one thing that I’ve always found is that the best way to keep yourself safe is to listen when there’s something telling you something’s wrong with someone.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“And Yuri? You should be mad at your mama, but the rest of them, Yakov and Lilia and your grandpa, they were just following her wishes. It’s never an easy call to override a parent’s decisions about their own child. Cut them some slack, okay?”

“What about Viktor and Yuuri?”

“Same thing. Viktor, be mad at all you want, but Yuuri was probably just respecting what Viktor wanted. Why Viktor thought it was best for you not to know, I don’t know. You’ll have to ask him.”

“Ugh. I have to skate tomorrow, which means I need to sleep tonight, which means that at some point I’m going to need to face Yakov.”

“He was doing his best with a bad position. At least he told you now, before Lev could really do too much.”

“I’m still not calling you papa.”

Boris chuckled. “I still don’t want you to. As long as you don’t take your anger at your mama or your dislike of me out on Natashka, okay? She had nothing to do with this. She’s been asking about you and we keep telling her you’ll be coming out in June.”

Yuri laughed, and he could feel at least some of the tension breaking. “Okay. I’ll be there for her birthday, or whenever Yakov will let me come around that time.”


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Boris, Yuri's broken through the complete muddle of his thoughts before. He begins the process of sorting through things and starting to heal a little.
> 
> Somewhere in there, there's a skating competition, too.

Yuri sat under the stairs for a while, thinking everything through. He was interrupted by a text from Yakov.

**_Just saw Lev is here. Are you okay?_ **

_Ran into him. We talked. He told me his side of the story._

_I don’t believe him. On my way back now._

He had to duck Angels a couple times. It made him sick. He wished he’d asked Lev about that – why start a fanclub for him. If he really was a father who’d just found out about his child, what was the motivation? On the other hand, if he was the con artist who’d ripped off his mother, then the fanclub got Yuri better sponsorship and made him a better target for his own con.

He wanted to believe Lev’s story, but Lev had already lied to him – at the least, by omission. Sure, Yakov had lied to him, Irina had lied to him, Viktor had lied to him, but Yuri believed that at least their lies were motivated by caring about him. Lev creeped him out, Yakov and Irina and Viktor didn’t. Even Boris, as much as Yuri didn’t like him, didn’t give him that sick feeling in his gut like Lev did.

Yakov didn’t say much, just checked if there had been Angel trouble and asked if Yuri was hungry. He wasn’t, so he just went on to bed.

Yuri didn’t sleep well, and in the morning, Yakov looked at him critically. “If you want to withdraw, I’ll notify the officials. If you want to skate, then we need to get going for warmups.”

“Can I decide after I skate in warmups?”

Yakov’s mouth dropped open and it took him a minute to answer. “Yes. I think that’s probably the best plan anyway.”

 

Warmups went all right, not great, but he wasn’t planning on doing triples anyway no matter what Yakov said after watching Emil. When he was on the ice, all the confusion and anger and hurt was muted. It was still there, but it wasn’t as bad as it was when he was lying in bed. “I’m skating,” he told Yakov as he left the ice.

It wasn’t his best skate. He didn’t fall, at least, but the usual mischief was lacking, and on his combo, he stepped out of the jump. Yakov criticized him just like always, not cutting him any slack for his mistakes, which was both a surprise and a comfort to Yuri. This, at least, felt normal. His score was disappointing, 27, lower even than the time he fell. It was still good enough that he was in second, behind Emil.

Emil found him after the competition. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just some family drama. Gotta learn to skate through it, right?” Yuri forced a smile.

Emil didn’t look fooled, but he let it drop. “Want a distraction? My coach is taking me to the Wildpark to see the animals. She’d probably let you come, too.”

Yuri looked to Yakov, who nodded. “If you want to go, you can. Text me when you’re on your way back.”

Yuri was captivated by the wild cats. They looked a lot like housecats. It was also their mating season, so they were easier to find than usual. Not that Yuri wanted to watch cats mate, but it was neat seeing the cats. For a few hours, he could forget all about everything and meow at the cats.

 

After dinner, he called Viktor. “I skated like crap today. Are you gonna stop sponsoring me?”

“Huh?”

“I know it’s you who’s been sponsoring me the last few years.”

Viktor was quiet for a moment. Finally, he quietly said, “Then you should know that the only way I’ll stop sponsoring you is if you don’t need it anymore. Are you quitting skating because you had a bad day?”

What the hell kind of question was that? “No.”

“Then your sponsorship’s fine!”

“Why do this?”

“Because you have the potential to be better than I am. I didn’t want to see that squandered because of money. I’m very curious to see what someone who went through even the basics with Yakov will do!”

It sounded good, and Yuri wanted to believe him. “So all this media crap about me being your son…?”

“Is media crap! Protégé would be a _much_ more accurate description.”

“I thought that was Yuuri.”

“Yuuri’s my soulmate. He’ll probably skate a few years after me, but not many. You’ll be coming up as I’m going out, you can keep Yakov’s rink and Russia at the top of the podiums for another generation of skaters. Yuuri’s also not Russian.”

“I didn’t think that made a difference.” Viktor had been very vocal about it when someone said something about Yuuri not really being part of Yakov’s rink because he wasn’t Russian.

“It doesn’t, when we’re talking about Yakov’s rink or how I feel about his wins. When we’re talking about the glory of the motherland, he’s not Russian. You are.”

“Are you still gonna make me do bullshit photoshoots and stuff?”

“Make you, no. I don’t want to interfere with your ability to negotiate with other sponsors, and if you sign with a company to wear their warmup gear, you can’t wear someone else’s. If I do another thing where I’m raising money for animal shelters or earthquake victims, I’ll ask you to be involved. I’d ask you to be involved even if I weren’t sponsoring you.”

“Did Yuuri know about this?”

“Yes, of course he did, I can’t keep a secret from him.”

“Misha? Georgi?”

“I think Misha suspects, but I’ve never told him and I don’t think Yuuri would. Georgi, no.”

So that was two more people on the list of People Who Hadn’t Lied To Yuri For Years. It hurt to have Yuuri confirmed to be on there. “Why not tell me?”

“Because I don’t want you to feel obligated to me at all.” There was a muffled conversation. “Yuuri wants to talk to you.”

Yuuri had been listening in? Whatever. “Fine.”

“Hi, Yuri.”

“Hi. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It wasn’t my secret to tell. If Yakov and Viktor thought it was best for you not to know, it’s not my place to say they’re wrong.”

“Even now when that’s your money too?”

Yuuri sighed. “I’m still not comfortable with the fact that I have access to all that money. I know if I asked Viktor would give my parents everything they need to sell Yu-Topia and retire in luxury, but even after all this time, that still feels like taking advantage of him. I imagine you’re feeling the same way?”

“Exactly! I don’t know how Viktor talked Mama and Grandpa into this. I know Viktor’s not gonna be a vulture and make me do things I’m not comfortable with, but now, any time you guys come home with a cool T-shirt or something for me, it’s going to feel weird. Even if it’s a birthday present or whatever.”

“That feeling is exactly why Viktor didn’t want you to know. This way you still got what you needed, but without the sense of obligation to him. How did you find out?”

“Yakov told me when I got paranoid that my sponsor was working for my dad. I wouldn’t put it past that creep to find out I had a sponsor I didn’t know the identity of and claim it was him.”

“Your dad showed up?”

“Yeah. Long story, don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Okay.”

“So what’s your deal anyway? Why are you so interested in me? Viktor’s protégé thing makes sense, at least.”

“You’re my rinkmate. Yakov encourages us to think of each other as family, and my rinkmates in Japan were my best friends, almost like another sister and a brother. I know you hate getting called our son, but I do think of you as kind of a little brother. Is that okay?”

Yuri thought it over. He didn’t trust parents, but a brother? “Better than son anyway,” he decided. 

“Okay. How was your skate?”

“Awful. I’m still in second, though.”

“That’s good! You’ll do better tomorrow, I’m sure.”


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri clears up most of the drama. Life has one more plot twist for him, though.

Yuri did, in fact, do better the next day. With things cleared up with Viktor and Yuuri, and things with Yakov starting to straighten out, Yuri was able to sleep better, and he felt better during warmups. When he left the ice, he looked up at Yakov. “Well?”

“If you feel up to it, you can do one triple. You shouldn’t need it, but after yesterday, I think you could use the boost.”

“Okay.”

Yuri started to tune out and think about tigers to get ready, but Yakov had another question for him. “When are you planning on talking to your mom and grandpa?”

Good question. “Grandpa… this is the worst timing. I want to go talk to him in person, but there’s no good time for nearly a month!”

“Do you want to drop out of Rozmaring? You’ve done well enough, you should be invited to the European Criterium Cup anyway. Then you could go up for your birthday.”

Yuri shook his head. “I know withdrawing from competitions happens, but I don’t want sponsors to think I’m a quitter. I’m not hurt, I don’t have a good enough reason.”

“International Challenge Cup could be very important for you, too. Like the NRW, it gets you looks you don’t necessarily get other places.”

“Yeah." It could be huge for him. This one, there would be skaters from Asia and North America, which meant the possibility of sponsors who didn't spend much time in Europe. Yuri sighed. "After that, there’s a nice big break. Guess it’ll have to wait until then.”

“Or you could go right after this. I have a few days before I take Mila to Minsk, we can go straight from here to Moscow if that’s all right with Kolya. Unless Rozmaring produces someone much stronger than we’ve seen all season, you can miss a day or two of practice.”

“I’ll call Grandpa and make sure we can come. Mama, I’m gonna talk to in June. It’s another one that needs to happen in person, not over the phone, but it can wait.”

 

Yuri’s skate was angrier than usual, but it worked for him on this one. After his double axel went well and his double salchow-double toe loop combo went even better, he decided that he would do his last jump as a triple instead of a double. It was his best jump of the day, too. 54 was the highest he’d gotten with one or fewer triples. He was very proud of himself when he came over to Yakov. The critique helped bring him back down to Earth, but things had gone well. Emil beat him, but he could live with that easily.

Lev approached after Yuri got his silver medal. “Congratulations, Yuri. I’m proud of you. Hello, Yakov. It’s been a long time.”

“Not long enough.” Yakov ignored the hand Lev held out. “What do you want with Yuri?”

Lev's eyes went wide with innocence. “I want the chance to get to know my son.”

“Not until Irishka or Kolya say you can. Until then, I don’t want you speaking to him.” Yakov put a hand on Yuri’s shoulder. “Come on, Yuri.”

Lev tried to follow, but Yakov was a well-respected coach, and all it took was a word to a security guard before they were able to escape. On the way back to the hotel, Yuri told Yakov what Lev had told him, his side of the story. 

Yakov snorted. “Your mama was great for photoshoots and interviews and product endorsements, but commercials where they wanted her to act, she was terrible. Ask Kolya if he still has the tape of the one time someone tried to have her guest star on a TV show.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“There is no way she was faking the heartbreak and the fear and the depression during her pregnancy and after you were born. She was not capable of putting on an act well enough to fool Kolya or Lilia or me. I never thought much of Lev before he pulled his disappearing act, either.”

 

Yakov warned Nikolai what was going on. Nikolai’s explanation was the same as Yakov’s – he thought Yuri should know, in case someone showed up claiming to be his father, or if Lev decided to show his face, but Irina was adamant that Yuri did not need to know anything and since she was his mother, he bowed to her wishes. “I’m sorry, Yurotchka. I had hoped that you wouldn’t ever need to know, but I thought you deserved to.”

Yuri believed him. He threw himself into his grandfather’s arms for a big hug. “I’m sorry I can’t stay longer, but I have a competition soon…”

“I know. I wish I could come. I wouldn’t mind seeing Lev again so I can have a word with him. I would love to see him explain Irishka’s devastation when she first came home and told me what had happened. If he is enough of a man to look me in the eye after what he did.”

“Am I gonna be like him, Grandpa?”

“No, Yurotchka. The two of you share DNA, so perhaps there will be some similarities there, but you were raised by much better people. You will only be like him if you choose to be.”

Nikolai did still have the tape of Irina's guest star appearance on a Russian soap opera. Yuri giggled at how bad it was. Yakov was right - if that was Irina's acting ability, then she couldn't pull off a lie as big as Lev said she was.

 

Yakov left almost as soon as they were back, to take Mila to Junior Worlds, but Yuri had a few days in Saint Petersburg before Lilia would be taking him to Budapest. Things were a little awkward with Viktor and Yuuri, but not awkward enough for Yuri to not go over to hang out with them. Misha and Georgi treated him normally, aside from Misha hugging him. “Viktor told us there was a lot of drama at your competition and that you could use a hug. We’re here for you, Yuri, and if you need us for anything…”

“Yeah, I know. Thanks.”

The other weird thing happened when Mila sent him a picture of a teenage boy with no explanation. Yuri had never seen the boy before. He called Mila. “New boyfriend?”

“No. Just wondering if you knew him.”

“Nope. Why would you think I did?”

“His name’s Stanislav Borislavovich Smagin.”

“Seriously?” Yuri took another look at the photo, and this time, he could see the resemblance to Lana.

“Seriously. He doesn’t look much like Boris…”

“No, but he looks like Boris’s daughter Lana, they probably both take after their mother.” Yuri shook his head. What was happening. “Why’s he at Junior Worlds?”

“He’s a pairs skater. He’s here to compete.”

“What.” Boris hadn’t mentioned that Stas was a skater. Yuri did not need this. Sure, Stas was his actual son while Yuri was the stepson he got stuck with and didn't want, but he'd have thought Boris would ask if Viktor or Yuuri knew Stas.

“Yeah. Weird, huh?”

“Very.” Yuri banged his head against the wall. “Having fun?”

“Lots! Phichit and Leo and Cathy are here, of course we’re having fun. In fact, I should get going, we’re going shopping.”

 

Yuri waited until it would be a reasonable hour in New York before calling Boris. “Why do you hate my skating so much?”

“I don’t hate your skating. Why do you think I hate your skating?”

"That crack you made about finding out whether it was worth it."

"Is it worth it? Is all the crap you've been through worth the medals?"

"Yes."

"There you are, then. You've found out."

“Do you hate Stas’s skating?”

“Huh?” Yuri forwarded him the picture. Boris sounded a little shaken when he said, “Where did you get that?”

“My rinkmate’s at Junior Worlds and she ran into a pairs skater with a familiar-sounding name.”

“Stas is competing at Junior Worlds? I knew he’d taken some basic lessons as a kid, but I had no idea he stuck with it.”

“Seriously?” Yuri believed him, even as unbelievable as it sounded.

“Seriously. I don’t know why he wouldn’t tell me about it, but he didn’t.” Boris made a thoughtful noise. “Although this would explain why he told me he wouldn’t be available on the 1st for our monthly call… I’ve got the schedule up and that’s the pairs short program. Why is he competing for Uzbekistan?”

“He is?”

“Yeah. I’ll be talking to him on the 6th. Might be faster to get answers through your rinkmate, if you’re curious enough to ask her.”


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rozmaring and Junior Worlds.

Yuri was curious, but he didn’t have to prompt Mila. She called him when he got to Budapest for the Rozmaring Cup. “Happy birthday, Yuri!”

“Thanks, Mila. What’s up?”

“I’ve been talking to Stanislav. He never told his dad about being a skater because he thought Boris wouldn’t approve and would say it was a waste of money and he should focus on school and get a real job instead. The look on his face when I told him that you were a skater…”

“So he thought Boris would be a jerk about it?”

“Pretty much. It’s not because it’s skating, he just didn’t think his dad would approve of him having unrealistic dreams. He made Lana quit modeling?”

“Lana says she quit on her own. I dunno. Doesn’t matter. I don’t think Boris will have a problem with it. Not if he’s at Junior Worlds.”

“And he’s skating for Uzbekistan because that’s where his partner’s from and there’s less competition. As in, none. Any spots Uzbekistan gets in events will be theirs.”

“As opposed to Russia, where they have a lot of competition.”

“Exactly. Gotta go, just thought you’d be interested.”

As he was unpacking, Yuri found some things in his suitcase he didn’t recognize – a black hoodie with a very subtle cheetah pattern, and some warm-looking black leggings. He called Viktor. “What’s with the new clothes?”

“It’s your birthday! You aren’t here for us to celebrate together, but we didn’t want you to think it was forgotten.”

“You didn’t have to get me anything. You’ve done too much for me already.”

Yuuri stole Viktor’s phone. “If you ever win that fight, tell me how you did it? I’ve never figured out how.”

Yuri huffed in amusement. “I mean it, Viktor. But thanks.”

“When you get back, there’s a box here from Irina and Boris, too. It just got here today, or I’d have sent it with you and Lilia.”

“Hang on, I’m switching to Skype. Open it and see what’s in there?”

Once Yuri was on Skype, Viktor and Yuuri held up the box. As Yuri had expected, the first thing out was socks and underwear. At least this time it wasn’t allegedly from Natasha. Next out was the one that was allegedly from Natasha, which was a fluffy orange blanket with a tiger in one corner. Yuri had no trouble believing Natasha had at least provided some input on this one. There were some toys for Potya and more clothes, along with an iTunes gift card. Not bad. Not anywhere near as cool as his last birthday, but maybe this year he’d have a silver medal to add to the haul.

 

Emil, Yuri, and Richard were the only three here in boys’ advanced novices. Emil ran to Yuri and hugged him. “I’m so glad to see you! Richard was trying to convince me you’d dropped out!”

Richard smiled sheepishly. “I’d heard a rumor that you were hurt at the last one, that’s why you did so bad in your short program, and your coach wouldn’t let you skate this one since you’re probably gonna be in the European Criterium Cup anyway. Sorry.”

“I thought about it. It wasn’t an injury, I’m fine now, I’m not dropping out.” Yuri pushed Emil off of him. “What’s your coach saying about jumps?”

Emil rolled his eyes. “With the International Challenge Cup next week, I’m supposed to take it easy this week. Your coach will probably say the same thing.”

“Yeah. Sucks. Oh well, next week we should get to have a little more fun.”

 

As expected, Yakov told Yuri to keep it to doubles. Yuri just shrugged. He wasn’t going to have any trouble beating Richard in the low 20s, and while he could beat Emil’s 38 if he did triples, it would just mean Emil would come out and do all the triples allowed in the free skate to get up above where Yuri could get him – not to mention the trouble with Yakov. He went out and did his thing, much better than he had in Feldkirch, and was rewarded with a 34. Yakov was pleased with it.

Mila called again to report Junior Worlds results. She was in fourth after the short program, behind Cathy, Kei, and Corinna. Phichit and Seung Gil were both in the final group for the free skate, and Seung Gil was currently in the lead. Both JJ and Leo had made the free skate. Stas and his partner Salomat had finished twelfth, which was their best finish ever.

“Leo’s awesome. Phichit introduced us and we’re having a lot of fun around here! A reporter asked me if Viktor and Yuuri’s influence was spreading and it was fun to get to say yes.”

“Ugh. Good luck tomorrow.”

“You too!”

The free skate went well – Yuri had a lot of fun skating as Growltiger, and he did incredibly well on his combination spin and his final double salchow. His 52 was the best he’d ever done without a triple, and Yakov was very pleased with him. Next year, he was going to be the one sweeping the golds. Emil took this one and Richard settled for bronze. He laughed at it after the ceremony. “Sounds better to tell my mom ‘hey, I won bronze’ than ‘hey I got last’ even when they’re both true. It’s not like she understands any of this. It’s not science, so she doesn’t care.”

“Sucks. Could be worse, though. At least we had a full podium!” Emil said.

Once again, Mila called to deliver Junior Worlds results. Phichit got bronze, Seung Gil was fourth after struggling with a triple axel. JJ just snuck into the top 10, while Leo got 12th. Mila finished fourth and Cathy won another gold. “She’s moving up next year. I’m gonna miss her. At least Leo and Phichit and Seung Gil will still be around!”


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The International Challenge Cup brings yet another ambush. This one, at least, is only kind of annoying and mostly fun.

They weren’t home for long before Yakov and Yuri left for the International Challenger Cup in The Hague. Yuri was on his way over to Emil when he got intercepted by a blond skater who looked Japanese.

“Yuri Plisetsky? Hi! It’s so good to meet you! I’m so glad you’re here and we get to skate against each other!”

Yuri stared at him. “Why do you know me? Who even are you?”

“Oh! Sorry! Minami Kenjirou. I know you because you’re Yuuri-senpai’s rinkmate! I’m skating for his old coach with Yuuko-senpai!” Kenjirou bowed to him. “I was hoping you would be here! Yuuko and Yuuri both say you’re really great and I’m looking forward to this.”

“Wow. You’re hyper, aren’t you?”

“Yes!”

Yuri shook his head. “And I’m not getting rid of you, am I.”

“Probably not. I only know one other skater here.” Kenjirou pointed to another boy who was lacing up his skates. “Ji Guang Hong and I have competed against each other a couple times. He’s a little shy but really fun once you get to know him.”

Yuri didn’t particularly care to get to know Guang Hong, but he got the feeling Kenjirou wasn’t going to give him a choice. He was right. On the way over, Yuri was distracted by a boy staring off into space with headphones on. He looked pissed off at something. Yuri hadn’t ever seen him around before, which probably meant he wasn’t a European skater. Yuri tapped Kenjirou’s arm and pointed. “Who’s that?”

Kenjirou looked. “Oh, I don’t know his name, but I skated against him once. The only time I remember seeing him with his headphones off is when he was on the ice.”

As Kenjirou had said, Guang Hong was rather shy when introduced to Yuri and Emil, who had joined them. Still, he hung out with them, and by the time Emil invited them over to watch some TV together, Guang Hong was starting to relax a bit.

That evening, he called Yuuri. "The last thing I needed was another ambush, piggy."

"Uhoh. What happened?"

"Your mini-me is here."

"My... oh, Kenjirou?" Yuuri laughed. "I didn't know he was coming! Yuuko probably did, but she didn't think to tell me. Tell him I said good luck, please?"

"Yeah, whatever."

 

Yakov gave his blessing to go for triples. “I don’t know the Asian or North American skaters, and then there’s the sponsors. Be careful, don’t push yourself if you don’t think you’ve got something, but if you’re comfortable do your best.”

Emil’s coach was taking the same approach, and Yuri was impressed by Emil’s skate. The skater right before Yuri was the music guy, and Yuri saw what Kenjirou meant about him always having his headphones on. At least he had a name now. Otabek Altin, from Kazakhstan. Yuri didn’t watch his skate, focusing on preparing himself for his own turn on the ice.

It felt good, knocking out the triple flip and spinning across the ice. Cat mischief was so much fun to skate, too. In Yuri’s opinion, this was the best he’d ever done this skate. Yakov seemed less certain, and the judges disagreed. He was a full point lower than he’d been at the NRW at 45. Yakov shrugged. “You skated fine. These judges are a little harsher than they were then. It happens.”

Guang Hong also got into the 40s, beating out Otabek for third, and Kenjirou finished in sixth for the day. They were both thrilled with how they’d done.

 

There were two days off between the short program and the free skate. Yuri spent the first day playing laser tag with pretty much all of the other novice skaters. It was just as much fun as he’d remembered. The second day, Yuri spent holed up with Emil, Richard, Guang Hong, and Kenjirou doing schoolwork. Yuri was in the middle of some math problems when Otabek walked up to them. “Hey. There’s a guy looking for Yuri Plisetsky.”

Yuri looked up. “Where?”

Otabek pointed, and Yuri swore. Of course it was Lev. It had been nice to not see him at Rozmaring, but luck wouldn't last forever. “Don’t tell him where to find me. I really don’t want to deal with him.”

“Okay.” Otabek started to walk off, but Yuri stopped him.

“You want to hang out here? We’re all studying, no reason you can’t join us.”

Otabek looked around and shrugged. “Sure, why not.” He went and got his stuff. He spent the whole time with his headphones on, but he was at least hanging out with them.

Lev did eventually find them. Yuri barely looked up. “Do I have to go get Yakov?”

“Yuri, I think I have a right to talk to you.”

Yuri clenched his jaw. In his opinion Lev had surrendered that right when he decided to run away instead of staying to be his papa, but he did have a question for Lev. “Why the fan club?”

“Fan clubs mean a built-in audience. Sponsors like to see that. The sooner you get it started, the more sponsors see it.”

“Yeah, but they’re crazy.”

Lev shrugged. “Get used to it, Yuri. The faster you do, the happier you’ll be.”

“Okay. You’ve talked to me. Now go away, I’m trying to study.”

“All right, then. Good luck tomorrow.” Lev patted Yuri on the head, earning a scowl at his back as he left.

“Who was that?” Emil asked. “Are you okay? Should someone get Yakov?”

“No, he’s not a stalker or anything like that. He founded Yuri’s Angels, that’s all.”

 

Yuri decided not to mention Lev to Yakov. He’d handled it, he thought. Richard and Kenjirou both did well, and Otabek became the first skater to break 60. Yuri liked his skate, set to “Ride of the Valkyries”. Guang Hong also did well, getting over 60.

Yuri didn’t hold back. He went out and skated his very best, having the time of his life as a tiger pirate. He did the same four triple jumps he’d done at the NRW, but with the increased practice and comfort with the routine, his score was several points higher for a personal best 77. Yakov had to work harder than ever to find faults with the skate. Naturally, it didn’t hold up against Emil, but it was good enough for silver.


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Worlds begins and there are medals! Woooo!

The spring semester was easier than the fall semester, in Yuuri’s opinion, although Viktor said that was probably because they hadn’t missed nearly as much. Michele, Sara, and Chris continued to be helpful, allowing Yuuri and Viktor to practice with them. Phichit wanted to learn Italian, so Yuuri got to teach him as well.

Other big news involved the Russian national championships for gymnastics. Sasha earned the silver all-around medal, as well as gold on uneven bars and bronze on balance beam and floor, and another gold with her team for Moscow. “Does that mean you’re going to the Olympics?” Viktor asked when she called to tell them about it.

“I don’t know. There’s still Europeans and the Russia Cup, and the team’s been cut from seven to five this year. At seven, I'd have been considered almost a lock as long as I didn’t mess up too badly, but at five, it’s a bit more competitive. The biggest thing helping me is that my bronze on beam was considered a disappointment, and that’s an event they could use all the reliably good scores they can get.”

“Well then, good luck! I know you’ll do great! I’m sorry we couldn’t come, but…”

Sasha laughed. “You’re in France. Little difficult to come, and you couldn’t afford the time off, even with the two days of prelims! I understand. Russia Cup’s in June, you should be able to come to that, and I hope you can get to London. I’ll be there on the 29th, don’t worry.”

 

Worlds was in Nice this year, and with the first two days being prelims, Yuuri, Viktor, and their friends had a lot of time for shopping and sightseeing. It was too cold for anyone to want to get in the water, but they spent a lot of time hanging out on the beach.

Yuuri was concerned when he didn’t see Kamil listed in a practice group on the 25th. Viktor blew it off – “He’s probably got something more important going on. We’ve got a long time before we have to compete, he might still make it. Anatolij and Olesya aren’t here either, and they compete before he does.”

Viktor’s intuition was proved right when his phone rang. It was Kamil. He sounded exhausted. “Kristýna.”

“Who?”

“She’s the reason I’m not in France yet. She’s a tiny copy of her mama, except she has my nose, Nadiya thinks.”

“Oh! Congratulations! I’ve got quite a lot of us here if you want to tell everyone at once.” Viktor switched his phone to speaker and held it out.

“My daughter Kristýna was born at 3 this morning. Everything looks good, she’s a little low on weight but she’s also a bit early so it’s not something the doctors are concerned about. She is deaf. They’re going to keep her overnight, she’ll go home tomorrow. Her parents are going to stay with her through Worlds. Anatolij and Olesya are on their way out now, and I’ll be out tomorrow night. I offered to withdraw but Nadiya says she’d never forgive me.”

“Bring a picture!” Chris shouted. Kamil laughed and hung up.

 

Kamil did bring a picture of Kristýna on his phone, at least. There was a lot of discussion about how cute she was. Viktor and Yuuri decided to go watch the men’s prelims – they didn’t expect anyone in there to be challenging for medals, but it was always good to see if someone was threatening to break out, and besides, Phichit’s friend Lukas was skating. Lukas ended up winning the prelims – he didn’t get a medal for it, but it was always nice to see your name at the top of the scoreboard.

They skipped pairs skating on the first day, but went to watch the short dance. Anya and Christov made second, Masumi and Jolanda third. Kirill and Katya took fourth, while Anatolij and Olesya finished in eighth. Anatolij didn’t mind. “I’m more happy about my niece than disappointed about being in eighth. We’re not out of medal contention, either. And it’s good to see Elyse and Malachi come back after Elyse’s injury!”

The ladies’ short program opened the next day’s skating. Kang-Hee ended up going very early and her 64 was going to be very difficult to beat. Skye struggled, falling on a double axel, and Sara looked very nervous out on the ice. Yuuko did great, coming close to Kang-Hee with a 62. Saila also got above a 60 to finish in third for the day, with Emily, Skye, and Iona also making the final group. Sara was eighth.

Sasha and Rykov got there in time to join everyone watching the free dance. Anatolij and Olesya did much better, although not better enough to get up into the medals. Kirill and Katya dropped below them. Masumi and Jolanda moved up to second over Anya and Christov, but Elyse and Malachi held on to win the gold.

Once they were out and everyone had congratulated the medalists, Viktor put an arm around Sasha and growled. “Is that gold my dragon senses?”

Sasha burst into laughter and pulled out her two gold medals. Viktor made a big production out of kissing them, followed by Yuuri. Everyone looked at Rykov. “Hey, I was there, since I’m not skating here. I kissed them right away. But speaking of…” Rykov turned to Sasha with a smirk. “You’d think Viktor’s own sister would know better than to bet against him taking a chance to be silly and extra. Pay up.”

Sasha sighed dramatically and pulled out her phone. A minute or two later, she handed it to Rykov. “There you go. Two months, private lessons, beginning after the Olympics.”

“Oh? What are you two doing?” Chris asked.

“Sasha looked like she was having so much fun at Viktor’s bachelor party, but then when I tried to get her to take actual lessons, she kept saying no. So we made a bet that Viktor would demand to kiss her medals. I won, so we’re gonna do it.”


	37. Chapter 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short program

The men finally got to skate on the 30th. Georgi had the misfortune to have to skate second out of thirty, which didn’t throw him off too badly as he got 85. Lukas also ended up in the first group, and he was very happy with his score of 70. The second group was strong, with Kaleb, Kamil, and Christophe. Su was in there as well, and he broke 80 as well. Kaleb struggled, falling on a downgraded quad salchow, and Kamil had trouble as well. He didn’t fall, but all three jumps had problems, and he ended up behind Kaleb. Christophe, at least, did well. He beat Georgi for the lead.

Bin seemed a little distracted while they watched the second group. He noticed Yuuri looking at him. “It’s my first birthday without Lian, and it’s hitting me a little hard today, that’s all. I’ll be fine.”

“Oh. It’s your birthday today?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I hope it’s a good one. As much as it can be, anyway.”

Bin got a small smile. “Thank you.”

Bin was up first in group 3, and despite his earlier distraction, he skated beautifully. His 89 was good enough for first. Yuuri was also in group 3. He landed his quad cleanly, and had a great deal of fun showing off in his step sequence. Once again, his triple axel was beautiful, and he finished with a flourish of piracy. He was going to miss this program next season. Yakov agreed. “This is another one you might want to keep practicing once in a while – it would be good for exhibitions or ice shows.” Of course, there were still a lot of things Yuuri could do to improve on it. His score was great, not quite beating his score from Nationals but still over 92.

The fourth group started with another bad skate from Aaron. Paul and Jude were also in that group, and they both did all right, not great. Canada’s Kyle Tremblay started the last group off reasonably well. Misha struggled a bit – he landed all his jumps, but nothing looked sharp. He finished behind Georgi.

Viktor had the next-to-last skate. He came out and made his statement with two clean quads for the first time, and he just had fun from there on out. It wasn’t a great performance score, though, meaning that he didn’t quite reach his record of 93. It was still good enough for first.

Michele was in the unenviable position of being the last skater and the skater who had to follow Viktor, and his nerves showed a bit. He ended up in fifteenth – still good, especially for his first time at Worlds, but he could have done better and he knew it.

“Clearly the two of you want the other on the podium. How do you choose which of your friends you want up there with you?”

Yuuri raised an eyebrow. “The same way the judges do. We want the one who has the best skate to be on the podium with us. We celebrate with whoever it is – or they are, if one of us ends up missing – and sympathize with our friends who don’t.”

“Any of the final group tomorrow is a good person to share a podium with,” Viktor added. “It’s a very nice problem to have, really.”

“You’ve made it very clear that you consider Yuri Plisetsky family. What do you think of his fan club, Yuri’s Angels?”

Viktor and Yuuri looked at each other and held a quick nonverbal conversation. Viktor took the question. “Naturally, we’re very happy that others are noticing what a brilliant skater Yuri is, and share our hopes that he’ll be more than ready to take up the banner for Russia when Misha and Georgi and I are gone. However we’re a bit concerned at how… enthusiastic… his fans are, given his young age.”

“There’s been some speculation that Misha’s thinking about retiring. Has he said anything to you about it?”

Viktor took this one, since he’d known Misha longer. “No. I’m not surprised there’s talk, given that he’s turning 27 this summer, but he hasn’t said anything one way or the other. I can see why he might think about it, but I also think he still loves skating and competing and if he wants to go another season his body and his skills will keep him in the hunt for medals.”

“Do you want to see him retire?”

Viktor shook his head. “Misha and I have been friends since I was ten and rivals since I was sixteen. I know he’s going to retire at some point, and I’ll have to skate without him at some point, but I’m not looking forward to that day. That said, I would much rather see him go out on top, on his own terms, instead of being forced out by injury or not being able to compete.”

Misha rolled his eyes when Viktor told him about the question. “I’m good for one more year, at least. I may not be quite as good as before, but I’m pretty sure I won’t become Aaron in one year. Thanks for saying such nice things about me.”

“I haven’t told you what I said yet!”

Misha stuck his tongue out at Viktor. “You don’t need to. You either made a joke of it and said you hoped I never retired because Rykov is most likely the one who will take my spot for major competitions, in which case Sasha would already be over here yelling at you, or you said nice things about me.”

Phichit called their attention to the media silliness that broke out: Viktor was jealous of Yuri for being better and more popular than he was in novices and Yuri should be watching out for sabotage from him. As soon as Viktor saw that, he was on the phone.

“Yeah, I saw that.” Yuri scoffed. “If you were going to sabotage me, you wouldn’t be sponsoring me. Yakov wouldn’t let you.”

“Okay. Good. I just wanted to make sure you knew that.”

“Why didn’t you say that my fanclub is a bunch of crazies founded by my idiot father who I don’t trust at all?”

“Because public image is important. You should start thinking about how you want to portray yourself. I don’t think you could pull off my persona, and you probably shouldn’t if you don’t want people to think of you as a rerun of me, but you do need to start crafting one.”

“Fu… forget that. I’m no actor. I’m not going to sugarcoat or hide in pretty lies and creative phrasing. The media’s going to be horrible to me no matter what, so I might as well be myself.”


	38. Chapter 38

Yuuri spent the evening cuddled up with the ninja sheep. He wasn’t going to collapse tomorrow, he trusted himself more than that, but it helped to keep him calm. Viktor had no problem cuddling Yuuri too.

The first group was fairly standard. Both of the other Japanese skaters were in the second group, as were Michele and Lukas. Lukas had a great skate that put him in first for the time being, which Michele promptly took from him. Yuuri watched Sachio and Ichizo carefully – if one of them didn’t do well today, Japan would only get two spots next year, and he hoped they would handle the pressure well. Ichizo was the first of the two, and he did not handle the pressure well. He ended up in fourth, and with thirteen skaters left, it was unlikely he’d be top twelve. Sachio looked incredibly nervous as he came out, but as soon as the music started, he was flying. He did very well, and took the lead from Michele, one that might hold up and be good enough.

Sachio’s score was enough to hold off Jude, but Paul edged him out. Kamil’s skate was full of small mistakes as well, and he finished below Michele, even. Clarien also struggled, but Kaleb and Su both beat Sachio. The top six skaters still had to go, but with Sachio in fourth, he couldn’t finish below tenth. As long as Yuuri medaled, Japan would keep its three spots.

Misha took the ice, and he didn’t look much better than he did the day before – if anything, he looked worse. Yakov didn’t say much to him while they waited for the score. Misha was behind Su. Georgi did well, skating a mostly clean program, which gave him the lead. Christophe’s skate was also mostly clean, although he underrotated his quad Lutz, which put him on top as well. Bin continued the streak of winning with his final skate, dedicated to Lian. He didn’t stick around in the Kiss and Cry any longer than he absolutely had to, and Yuuri couldn’t blame him.

Yuuri also couldn’t focus on him. He was due up. Viktor kissed him for good luck for them both. “You can beat that easily. Just skate your best,” Yakov said. Yuuri nodded and skated to his opening pose. He touched a hand down on his first jump, his quad flip, but settled down by the next jump. His layback spin was beautiful as always, and from there on out, he was able to focus on being a pirate until his quad toe loop-double toe loop combo at the end. That one could have gone better, but it wasn’t a fall, at least. His 185 gave him a big lead over Bin, but Viktor could beat it.

Viktor came out strong with his quad flip combo. His dancing was strong and his jumps good as always. His step sequence was great, and he landed his quad salchow cleanly. Four clean quads in one competition – Viktor was very proud of that, and it showed as he finished. Yuuri’s presentation score was enough better that Viktor was a few tenths below him, but it wasn’t enough better to give Yuuri the gold over Viktor. When the scores popped up, Viktor and Yuuri hugged in the Kiss and Cry.

 

It took some time for Bin to be found to come out and get his bronze, and then Viktor and Yuuri had to deal with reporters before they could go watch the ladies. “Congratulations! Gold and silver, again. Does it get boring?”

“No, it doesn’t. We can’t take it for granted. The moment we get comfortable, one of the others will come up and take it from us. And then there’s always the fun of seeing which of us will get what!” Yuuri said.

“Do you know what happened to Misha? Seventh place is well below his usual standard.”

Viktor shook his head. “Bad competitions happen. I’ve seen him in practice, I know he’s still capable of getting on the podium.”

“Your coach seemed rather quiet. Any idea why?”

Viktor shrugged. “No. Usually it’s because I’ve done something incredibly stupid, but I haven’t done anything incredibly stupid lately and he wouldn’t take that out on Misha.”

“So… Misha did something incredibly stupid?”

“Not that I know of!” Viktor winked at the reporter. “Unless you count the time he forgot his wife’s favorite flower and got her the wrong ones for her birthday.”

“So what’s next for the two of you? Russia and Japan are both in the World Team Trophy, right?”

“Yes. I don’t know if it’ll be Georgi or Misha with me, but I assume it will be one of them, and Sachio seems likely to be my husband’s teammate?” Viktor looked to Yuuri, who nodded. “I look forward to it.”

“And then what?”

“And then my husband and I are both in school until June, so we’ll be focusing on our classes and on preparing for the next season.”

“Your first anniversary is coming up… any big plans for it?”

“Yes!” Viktor beamed. “School. We got ahead as much as we could before leaving for Worlds and kept up as much as we could, but I’m sure there are things we’ll need to do.”

“Seriously? No big romantic thing?”

“We have the exhibition skate tomorrow and travel on the 2nd, school and practice may well be all I have the energy for on the 3rd,” Yuuri said. “We’ll do something, I’m sure, but it won’t be anywhere near as elaborate as what most people would expect from us.”

 

Once they finished with interviews, Yuuri and Viktor went in to watch the ladies. Sara did quite well, earning herself first place after the second group, ahead of Sako. In the final group, Skye had a beautiful skate, probably the best Yuuri and Viktor had ever seen from her, which catapulted her into a huge lead over Iona, Sara, and Sako. Emily did well, and Saila dropped as usual, guaranteeing Skye her first Worlds medal. Yuuko skated well, but not well enough to catch Skye – but it was still a Worlds medal for her, too, her first as well. Kang-Hee came out and destroyed Skye’s score, giving Skye silver and Yuuko bronze.

There was much squealing when the medalists got together to form a reception line for medal kisses. Camera flashes from all over dazzled Yuuri’s eyes and by the time they were done, he wasn’t sure he’d ever see normally again. “Can you believe this, Yuuri? Two of us, from little Hasetsu, standing on the podium at Worlds.” She snuggled back into Takeshi’s arms and winked up at him. “If you get me pregnant with triplets before the next Olympics, I’m going to hurt you. Just so you know.”

“Oh no. Six kids under the age of five all at once? No thank you. No way. Honestly, I’m just as happy to say we’re good with the three kids we have, we don’t need more, but if you want more after you retire we can talk about it.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me.”

 

They caught up with Misha later. Misha found the questions Viktor and Yuuri had gotten funny. "I had done something stupid. Yakov's not considering kicking me out, it was just his way of saying I told you so."

"What did you do?" Yuuri asked.

Misha pulled up his pants leg to reveal the brace he was wearing on the ankle he'd hurt the year before. "It started acting up a couple days ago. After yesterday, Yakov said I should withdraw so I wouldn't hurt it worse today. And, well... I didn't."

Viktor had a surprise planned for the exhibition skate. Yuuri’s program this year had been created in response to the debate about pirates versus ninjas. Therefore, when Viktor went out on the ice to duel Captain Hook, he did so in his ninja costume. Yuuri recovered easily from the shock and had a good time fighting, and then Viktor skated his old ninja free skate for his exhibition.


	39. Chapter 39

The morning of their anniversary, Viktor woke Yuuri up somewhat later than usual. Yakov had given them the day off practice, and between that and Yuuri’s typical travel exhaustion, Viktor let him sleep until he was about to leave. “Good morning, Yuuri. I’m off to class, but I wanted to wake you up and tell you happy anniversary before I left.”

“Thanks Vitya.” Yuuri rubbed his eyes. “I love you so much. What time is it?”

“9:30.” Viktor caught Yuuri as he tried to jump out of bed. “You don’t have class this morning and Yakov told us he didn’t want to see us, remember?”

Yuuri settled back down. “Right. Nothing to do this morning, because I need rest. Thanks.”

Viktor was used to people making a fuss over him, but it felt weird when it was coming from his classmates. Apparently, some of them were only just now realizing that he was that Viktor. He was very glad that he and Yuuri had their Italian class together, in case Yuuri was going to be facing the same problem. It was unlikely, how many Japanese Yuuris who were married to Viktors could there be in Saint Petersburg, but you never knew.

Yuuri had class until 5:30, so after Viktor was done, he waited for Yuuri. They went out for an early dinner, and then home to celebrate their anniversary with Assassin’s Creed. Viktor had won the gold, after all. “I have to say, I’m surprised,” Viktor said as he handed Yuuri the controller after dying. “I didn’t see a single reporter on campus, nor at dinner. Do you think for once they actually believed us when we said we were going to keep it simple and quiet?”

“Well, the school would probably get mad if reporters showed up and disrupted classes. You’re right, though. This is weird! Maybe they didn’t believe us and the fact that we didn’t go somewhere super fancy for dinner confused them?”

“I’m not complaining. This is perfect.”

Of course, they had to pay for their perfect quiet evening together. The media reported trouble in paradise. “Viktor Nikiforov is incapable of celebrating anything in a small way, so we have to conclude that Viktor and Yuuri did not celebrate their anniversary. Since Viktor is also incapable of just skipping a celebration, and Yuuri wouldn’t let him forget about it, they must have chosen to ignore it. Why would they do that? Could this mean that the marriage is too shaky to support a celebration?” Viktor read.

Mila giggled. “Or it could mean that the marriage is so solid that the two of you celebrate every day so you didn’t feel the need to do something special.”

“Or it could mean exactly what we said it did at Worlds – that being so close to the competition meant that we were too focused on that to get anything planned.” Yuuri looked over Viktor’s shoulder. “Hamsters out?”

“Yeah… some of them are disappointed that they didn’t get some cute over-the-top celebration, but they’re sure whatever we did we were cute.” Viktor kissed Yuuri’s nose. “They’re right about that. You were involved.”

“Shouldn’t you two be leaving for class?” Yuri grumbled. “Instead of making the rink all weird?”

Yuuri pulled away from Viktor, but he shook his head. “Not until we’ve heard the word on Misha or it gets too close to time. We’ve got a few minutes before we have to go.”

Yakov picked that minute to walk out of his office. “What’s everyone standing around for? Vitya, Yuuri, shouldn’t you be on your way?”

“Yes, but… Misha?”

“Misha’s been advised to rest his ankle for a week and then we’ll see. Georgi, we’ll be making the call on whether you or Misha go based on when he can get back on the ice, so consider yourself still in season.”

“Yes, Coach.”

 

Yakov and Yuri were due to leave on the 8th for the European Criterium Cup. On the 7th, Misha showed up at the rink. “Yakov? Georgi?”

Yakov scowled at him. “Misha. Why are you here? You should be resting.”

“I am! I came to talk to you and Georgi. I’ve talked things over with Emiliya, and she agrees with me that it’s not really fair to Georgi to ask him to keep training hard and then take over. Anya’s going, so Georgi would be going anyway, and if I withdraw that’s more time with Nika and more time to rest my ankle before next season. So Georgi, if you want it, the spot’s yours.”

“That’s what alternates are for, Misha. Train hard and hope not to go.” Georgi couldn’t quite hide the happiness, though.

“It’s not like I’m giving up the spot to an obnoxious little twit!” Misha grinned. “Good luck. Represent Russia well. Sorry Yuuri, but I’m cheering for Viktor and Georgi to kick your ass.”

“As long as they don’t sabotage me somehow, I don’t mind you guys cheering against me. Yuuko and I will be cheering for me and Sachio over the two of them.”

 

The rink was abnormally quiet with Misha at home resting his ankle, Yuri and Yakov in Italy for Yuri’s competition, and Mila off visiting family. “I’m glad we’re having the team competition this year. That was one of the worst things about last season, having to cancel it.”

“Also Worlds in Moscow instead of Tokyo?” Viktor teased. “Your parents could have come if it was in Tokyo.”

“Yeah, that would’ve been nice, but they couldn’t have. Triplet-sitting and helping clean up the flood damage. Tokyo’s probably going to get another chance at it, and maybe that time there won’t be babies to look after.”

“Maybe?” Georgi teased. “Are you two thinking about kids already?”

Yuuri blushed. “No! Not until after college, at least! But Yuuko could have more, or they could decide that since Yuuko and Takeshi are family Takeshi’s sister is family and their babies are family, or Mari could decide to surprise us all.”

“Does Mari even want kids?”

“She did before she met Kokei, but after that… I dunno. She’d be a pretty cool mom, I think.”


	40. Chapter 40

Canazei was warmer than Yuri was used to. Emil was running around in shorts, unless he had to be on the ice. There were three other competitors in the boys’ competition, none of whom Yuri remembered from earlier competitions. “Thought Richard would be here.”

“I did too.” Emil shrugged. “No idea what happened. You miss him?”

“No. Just realizing next year’s gonna be weird because you’re gonna be up in Juniors so Richard’s the only one I’m gonna know at these things.”

“You could always make other friends,” Emil teased.

“Why? I’m not Yuuri or Viktor. I don’t want to be in the middle of a huge crowd all the time.”

“The more friends you have the more likely you are to know someone at the competition. Ivo’s pretty cool, we hung out last year.”

Yuri shrugged. “I don’t mind being on my own. Rather do that than hang out with an asshole.”

“Ivo’s not an asshole.”

“I didn’t say he was.”

“Good.” Emil took Yuri’s hand and dragged him over to Ivo. “Hey. This is Yuri. Yuri, this is Ivo.”

“Right. The ten-year-old doing triples.” Ivo held out a hand. “Hi.”

“I’m eleven,” Yuri said as he shook Ivo’s hand.

Emil looked between the two and rolled his eyes. “Hey, do you know what happened to Richard?”

Ivo made a face. “Yeah… his school’s still making him do gym class, and they were playing soccer and there was a collision. He fell and another player came over and kicked him in the face instead of kicking the ball accidentally. Broke his nose. He wanted to come and skate still but his parents wouldn’t let him.”

“Ow!” Emil put his hands to his nose. “I’ve broken my nose a couple times. Hurts like hell, but no reason not to skate afterwards!”

 

Even after hanging out with Ivo and watching his short program, Yuri still had no idea when he’d skated against the guy before. Given that the guy couldn’t land his double Lutz, he wasn’t really interested, either. Maybe by the time Yuri got up to seniors, Ivo might be a threat, but probably not. Emil was still the only one here who could beat him. The next two years promised to be boring.

He was going to miss this program, though. Maybe when he was in seniors he’d come back and revisit the theme – only that time he was going to do “Rum Tum Tugger” and Yakov wouldn’t be able to say no. Mischief was all good and well, but he loved Tugger. Did whatever he wanted, no matter what anyone else thought. Tugger even had to deal with a ridiculous fanclub of mostly girls. His short program went very well, and he finished it off with a pretty good score. Next year, he wanted to push it even further. See if he could get above fifty. His best score this year was a 46, and he’d gotten 45.53 today.

Emil, of course, beat him soundly. Yuri didn’t mind. He joined Emil at the laser tag game afterwards, ready to have some fun. Ivo and Moises, one of the other competitors, joined them, while Mareks rolled his eyes and went right back to his hotel to study. At dinner after laser tag, though, Yuri was spotted by Angels. So he was not in a good mood at all when they got back to the hotel and he saw Lev.

He tried his hardest to ignore Lev, but of course, he was spotted and Lev came over. “Hi, Yurotchka. You did good today.”

"Yes, I did. Why are you here?"

“I came to watch my son skate! Is that such a crime?”

Emil’s eyes bugged out. “This guy’s your _dad_?”

Yuri scowled. “Only in the sense that he got my mom pregnant. He’s never been around. I didn’t even know who he was until a few months ago.”

“I’d have been there if Irishka had ever told me about you…”

“Just… shut up. I don’t believe you.”

“You’ve never given me a chance. You’re believing what others are telling you about a man they haven’t seen for nearly twelve years.”

“After what you did to my mom, why should I give you a chance?”

“Because I’m your father.”

“No, you really aren’t. You’re some guy. I don’t even look like you.” Yuri crossed his arms. “Even accepting you as my father, I barely trust Mama anymore. Why should I give you a chance to betray me and abandon me the way she did?”

Lev's jaw dropped. “Irishka abandoned you? Really? She made Nikolai raise you himself?”

“No, it wasn’t until after I’d started skating with Yakov.”

“But she did abandon you. Like she abandoned me. There’s something we have in common.”

“Except that she says you abandoned her.”

Lev crouched and looked Yuri straight in the eyes. “Two sides to every story, remember, son? I’m willing to bet if someone asked Irishka, she’d say you abandoned her for a shiny new skating career.”

“Whatever.” Yuri turned and walked off, ignoring Lev’s attempts to call after him.

 

Yakov was not pleased that Lev was here when Yuri mentioned seeing him the next day. He was even less pleased that Yuri hadn’t slept well the night before. “Lev says there’s two sides to every story. What’s Mama’s side of never being there for me from when I came here until after Natasha was born?

“When she was skating for me, she rarely even tried to see Kolya. It was starting to change, but that’s just how things were back then. Like how Sasha and Vitya never saw each other until Vitya reached out. She may not have realized that things have changed, and left to pursue her own life with you gone to pursue your dream. I don’t agree with it, but it’s understandable. I don’t see how Lev taking off on her when she was pregnant can be spun.”

“I guess.”

“And before he goes trying to make you believe he’s changed…”

“Too late. He brought up how you hadn’t seen him for twelve years.”

Yakov snorted. “Keep in mind that if he’d changed, he’d have admitted to what he did and said he wanted to make up for it instead of lying and trying to turn you against your mama and grandpa and me. I should’ve brought Lilia.”

“Why?”

“Lilia saw right through Lev the second Irishka introduced him. Lev is terrified of her.”

“Oh.” Yuri wouldn’t admit it, but _that_ was something he and Lev had in common.

The lack of sleep didn’t hurt Yuri much in his free skate, as he cat-pirated his way across the ice. He earned a personal best close to 78 with it, and Emil beat him to take the gold. “Gonna miss standing on this podium with you, Yuri. I don’t really expect to make podiums as often in Juniors.”

“Depends who’s still there. Phichit and Seung Gil are good. They’re old enough to move up if they want to though, and I know Phichit’s eager to get into seniors with Yuuri.”


	41. Chapter 41

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> World Team Trophy Begins!

The World Team Trophy was the last event of the season, and Yuuri was looking forward to it – except for the part where he was going to be on a different team from his husband. They were used to competing against each other, but this was different. Yuri and Mila were coming, while Misha stayed home with Emiliya and Nika.

At the team meeting, Sachio sat beside Yuuri. “Did you hear? Ichizo announced his retirement yesterday.”

“I hadn’t. I’m not surprised, but I’m sorry to lose him.” Ichizo had never really been a friend, but he’d been a solid competitor and Yuuri was going to miss him.

“Same. What do you think Japan’s chances are?”

Yuuri shrugged. “We’ve got me, Yuuko, and Iona, who should be good for at least two medals, but I don’t think we have a chance in ice dance or pairs. Russia’s got Viktor, Georgi, and Anya and Christov who could all take medals, and they’ve got a chance in the ladies’ singles and pairs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Russia win.”

“Cheering for your husband’s country over your own?”

Yuuri smiled. “No, I want Japan to win, I’m just being realistic. Yumisa and Toru are outclassed in ice dance, and Mie and Yusuke are long shots for a pairs medal. You’ve got a lot of competition. I’d love to see you with me on the podium instead of Georgi though!”

 

The first day of competition started with ice dance. As expected, Anya and Christov led after the short dance, but the French team took second, which was a surprise. The Japanese team came in last.

The men’s skate was next. Viktor skated second, after one of the French skaters, Valentin Rodin. Yuuri watched – he wasn’t skating until the second group, he’d have time to deal with any awkwardness, and this was the last time he’d get to see Viktor skate this program like this. Viktor looked good out there, landing his quads cleanly and spinning well. When his score popped up, he let out a scream. 94. A new record.

At the end of the first group, no one had come close to Viktor. Paul was in second, Sachio in third. Su had struggled, falling on his attempt at a quad Salchow, and he was in fifth.

Yuuri was second in the second group. His quad toe loop was good, and he had a great deal of fun with the step sequence. When he transitioned into the pirate king, he had even more fun. Yuuri was breathing hard when he got to the end of his routine. He was definitely going to miss this. Yakov’s criticism focused on skills, and Yuuri had to laugh when his score popped up. If he’d skated before Viktor, he’d have gotten the record only to lose it to Viktor again. 93.67 was a new personal best.

Georgi and Bin both did well, finishing fourth and third for the day. The ladies were the last group to compete that day. Iona got the group off to a very good start. Raisa did very well, finishing right behind her. Skye, also in the first group, pulled off a personal best skate of her own, taking the lead. Yuuko was the last skater, and she couldn’t quite catch Skye.

 

The media was, as always, eager to talk to them. “Russia had quite the day today! Two skaters in first, two in fourth. Are you happy with your team’s standing, Viktor?”

“Of course I am! I’m very pleased.”

“And another world record for you. You’ve had a good day.”

“I have!" Viktor hugged Yuuri. "I just wish my husband had gone before me so that he could be the one to break my record and then I break his.”

“Yuri Plisetsky came to watch. Obviously, he’s cheering for Russia. Do you think he’s cheering for you as well, Yuuri?”

“I think so, yes. We’re rinkmates, after all.” Yuuri glanced up at Viktor, who smirked. At least they weren't accusing Yakov of playing favorites to win this for Russia.

“You consider him family, don’t you?”

“Yes. That’s how things are at our rink.”

“Do you think you two are part of the reason Yuri refuses to have anything to do with his father?”

Viktor and Yuuri looked at each other. “No comment,” Viktor eventually said. “In fact, we’re done here. Come on, Yuuri.”

 

Once back at their hotel room, Yuuri got on the phone with Phichit and Viktor contacted his publicist Isaak. “I probably should have done this a year ago, but I thought we’d have more time before Yuri started getting harassed. Yuri needs a publicist, and because he’s so closely connected with us, I want someone who will work with this team.”

Isaak chuckled. “I was just about to call you and offer to take him on myself. Mihara-san may or may not offer, but I’m Russian, I know our culture and how best to promote him here. Let’s talk.”

Phichit, meanwhile, found an interview Lev did where he told his version of Irina abandoning him and never telling him about his son, and poisoning the boy against him. “I don’t blame her former coach or her father for their part in it, she poisoned their minds as well. All I want is a chance to get to know my own son, but he refuses to speak to me.” When asked about Viktor and Yuuri, Lev was cautious. “Irina always said that she and her rinkmates were a family, and although I never was a part of that family, I saw what she meant by it. I’m glad he has that support system, but they’re two more people who have heard the story from only one side and second- or third-hand. I’m glad to know they were there for Yuri when Irina abandoned him the way she abandoned me.”

Yakov found contact information for the reporter who had conducted the interview and their employers, and for once, Yuuri enjoyed the shouting. He went to Yuri and hugged him, and for once, Yuri didn’t even try to push him away. “What do you think the chances of Mama seeing this interview are?”

“I don’t know your mama. Minako reads everything she can get her hands on about me, and shares the good stuff with my parents, but your mama doesn’t have Phichit feeding her articles. Given that she hasn’t called you, I’m going to guess she hasn’t seen it yet, but you never know when that will change. Do you want to call her?”

“No.” Yuri pulled out his phone. “I’m calling Boris.”


	42. Chapter 42

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Irina gets brought in the Lev Loop. Feces encounter a rotating bladed object.

Boris listened patiently while Yuri explained the situation. “Okay. You said Viktor’s working on getting you a publicist?”

“Yeah.”

“As soon as something’s settled, get me contact information.”

“You don’t have recommendations?”

“I could give you some, but Viktor’s handling that and I figure he knows what he’s doing. If you want me involved you’ll have to make sure to specifically tell them that. I know you wanted to wait to tell Irishka about this until you came out in June, but at this point, I think we don’t have that time.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“Do you want to come out here early, or do it on the phone, or have me do it?”

“None of them. But since I can’t do what I want to, I think Skype’s probably the best option. I want Mama to have to look at me when she explains why she thought this was a good idea, but I don’t think anything good can come out of us being in the same room.”

Boris chuckled. “Sounds good. It’s too late for you tonight, probably… skating starts at 3 tomorrow, right? So if you call us tomorrow morning before skating, we’ll have plenty of time to talk.”

“Yeah. Is it okay if I ask Viktor and Yuuri to be there?”

“Irishka might not like it, but she doesn’t have to. If you want the support, go for it.”

“You’re taking my side over Mama’s?” Yuri couldn’t get his mind around it. He’d never thought Boris would go that far in looking out for him.

“Irishka’s a grownup. She’ll have me here for support. You’re a kid. You should have support, too, if you have someone you trust. Everything smoothed over with Viktor and Yuuri, then?”

“I’m still pissed that they kept it a secret for so long even though they knew how worried I was about losing that sponsorship and having to quit skating, but I get why Viktor did it and why Yuuri went along with keeping me in the dark about it. At least that, once I got over the initial hurt, turned out to be a good thing.”

 

Viktor and Yuuri both agreed immediately when Yuri asked them to sit with him on the phone call. When they answered, they were greeted with the sight of Natasha waving to them. “Yura!”

“Hi Natasha!” Yuri waved back.

Boris picked her up. “It’s her bedtime, but I thought you might like to see her. I’ll be back after I get her put to bed.”

Irina smiled at Yuri. “So Boris says you need to talk to me about something important? What’s going on, Yurotchka?”

“I have a fanclub now.”

Irina beamed. “Oh, really? That’s great, Yuri! Sponsors will love that, and…”

“Founded by Lev Melikov.”

The color drained from Irina’s face, and Yuri got to see her legendary acting skills in action. “Oh? Who’s that? A publicist?”

“Wow. Yakov wasn’t kidding.” Yuri shook his head. “You know who Lev is. He’s your soulmate and my real father.”

“He is not your real father.” Irina's voice was colder than Yuri had ever heard.

Yuri looked at Viktor. Viktor shook his head, eyes wide. “Huh?”

“You don’t have a real father. Lev is the a… jerk who knocked me up, but he’s no father to you.” Irina’s brows drew together. “What does he think he’s pulling? You don’t even have anything for him to steal!”

“Yet.” Yuri crossed his arms and glared. “He says that he didn’t know about me until last fall when we ran into each other at the airport.”

“He’s lying.”

“And I’m supposed to know that how? You’ve been lying to me my whole life.”

“I have not!” Irina protested.

“Maybe lying’s not the right word, but you’ve been keeping this from me my whole life. Yakov and Grandpa both thought I should know but you insisted that everything would be fine. It’s not fine.”

“I…”

“And now Lev’s got an interview out with his side of the story and how he just wants a chance to get to know his son.”

Irina shook her head vehemently. “He’s not getting that chance.”

“With all due respect, Irina, that may not be an option anymore,” Viktor interrupted. “He’s the founder of Yuri’s fan club, and from a publicity standpoint, he’s out there first with his side of the story. It becomes a publicity nightmare if it becomes he-said she-said and Yuri sides entirely with you – a lot of people will sympathize with the act Lev is pulling.”

Irina glared. “You stay out of this, Viktor. This has nothing to do with you,” Irina said.

Viktor shrugged and looked at Yuri. Yuri shook his head. “It has a lot to do with him. If Lev wins this war in the press, sponsors won’t want to be associated with me, which means I’m dependent on Viktor to skate that much longer.”

“Isaak’s already agreed to take Yuri on….”

“Shulichenko?” Boris said, having come back in the room then. Viktor nodded. “I've worked with him before. Good choice.”

Viktor stared down Boris. “You know, there’s one easy way for this to get resolved.”

Boris shook his head. “If we’d done it before, then yes, but at this point it would look like proof of Lev’s point. And that’s if the courts granted it – Lev gave up his parental rights when he abandoned Irishka, but since he’s claiming he didn’t know about the child, who knows if that would hold up.”

“Granted what? What are you talking about?” Yuri said.

“Me adopting you. It wouldn’t exactly be a surprise to most people – a boy with no known father being adopted by his mother’s new husband is a popular story, Fatherless Boy Finds Real Dad In Stepfather.”

Yuri's jaw dropped. “No. No way. You don’t even _want_ to do that.”

“Without the Lev situation, no, I don’t, but if adopting you is what it takes to keep you safe from him, I’ll be on the first flight to Russia once that decision’s made.” Boris smirked at the look on Yuri’s face. “If I do, you’re still not calling me Papa.”

Yuri fought the smile that was trying to come out and crack his glare. “I still don’t want to.”

Irina looked between her boys. “Since when do the two of you get along so well?”

Boris shrugged. “I told you he’d get used to me and try to get along. For Natashka’s sake.”

“At least I can trust him to tell me the truth. He doesn’t hide things from me when they’re about me.”

“Yuri." Full name. Shit. Not that Yuri cared whether he was in trouble with his mama. Yakov and Lilia wouldn't care. "I made that decision to keep you from trying to find him. That would only end with you getting your heart broken.”

“Yeah, well, look what happened. He showed up and if he’d been the one to tell me instead of Phichit finding old pictures of the two of you…”

“And what if someone else had tried to claim him? Yuri wouldn’t know!” Viktor said.

“I would. I’d tell him the man was a liar,” Irina spat. “I’m done here. I don’t need to listen to children second-guessing my decisions.” She hung up before Yuri could protest.

Yuuri let out a long breath. “That could have gone worse.”

“Yeah. Thanks for being here, guys. She’s got me so mad right now. Glad I don’t have to skate. You guys go kick some ass on the ice for me, okay?”

“Me too? I’m not Russian…” Yuuri teased.

“Yes you too. You’re my rinkmate and Russia’s going to kick Japan’s butt everywhere but you and the ladies.” Yuri hugged them both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Viktor is a master of the "Why is it that anytime someone says 'with all due respect' what they really mean is 'kiss my ass'?" school of thought.


	43. Chapter 43

The pairs short program was disappointing for both Russia and Japan, who finished fifth and sixth respectively. In ice dance, Japan was fifth, which was somewhat of an upset. Anya and Christov stumbled and dropped to third, behind the American and French teams.

“We’ll get it back,” Georgi said. “After the men’s skate Russia will be in the lead, I promise.”

“But if that will hold up through tomorrow, we don’t know,” Viktor said. “We’ll have to see.”

The two French skaters went first in the men’s free skate, and neither put up a high enough score to concern Viktor or Yuuri. The standings didn’t change much below Yuuri and Viktor – Bin had the lead, with Georgi right behind him. China had the lead for the men’s skate, thanks to Bin, but unless Viktor or Yuuri messed up badly, Russia would win the men’s singles with Japan in second.

Yuuri got to skate first, and he struggled to shake off the morning’s drama. He didn’t regret being there for Yuri. It did mean that his mind was elsewhere, meaning several small mistakes on jumps. No falls or major stumbles, but bobbles and slight problems with getting rotations around. His dancing was as good as always, at least, and he put up a good score. Not quite his score at Worlds, but still, good.

Viktor, too, didn’t do as well as he did at Worlds. In his case, though, he still looked good. He wobbled on his quad salchow, but his dancing was better, and he finished clean. It wasn’t another record performance, but his 185 put him at 279, one point ahead of Yuuri for first place. At the end of day 2, Russia was on top by five points, Japan second, and America third.

“How do you feel going into tomorrow? Yuuri, Japan’s in second.”

“True, but we always knew that our ladies’ singles were our strongest event. I wouldn’t be surprised if Japan came back to win this one.”

“Viktor?”

“Russia is in first, but holding on will be difficult. Alina and Raisa are strong competitors, but Yuuko and Iona are both amazing. I wouldn’t be surprised if Japan does come back to win the gold.”

“Are you going to run off if we ask you a question about Yuri Plisetsky?”

Yuuri cuddled in closer to Viktor, and Viktor gave him a quick squeeze. “That will depend on the nature of the question. If you want to talk about his incredibly successful novice debut season, I would love to brag about my rinkmate and his amazing skating. If you want to talk about his plans for next season, we haven’t talked about whether I’m choreographing his programs for next year as well, but I do know that he intends to pursue a similar competition schedule this year as last. If you want to talk about other things, I’ll refer you to Yakov or his new publicist, Isaak Shulichenko.”

“Isn’t that your publicist as well?”

“Yes. Which is why Yuri trusts him to handle his publicity as well.”

“Does that include asking about this somewhat silly rumor?”

“Given some of the things Yuuri and I have endured, I’m no longer sure I understand what qualifies a rumor as silly. You can ask, I suppose, the worst that happens is that I’ll tell you to ask Isaak or Yakov.”

“We’ve seen that Yuri has a fondness for cats, including the large cats. It’s been suggested that he got that love of cats from his father because his name is Lev.”

Yuuri giggled, but Viktor shook his head. “His half-sister Natasha has a similar love of cats and no ties to Lev. That’s just Yuri being Yuri.”

 

On the third day, the pairs skating continued to be a disappointment for Russia and Japan, as they once again were the bottom two. Alena Volkova, the first Russian skater, continued the disappointing day. Raisa tried to make up for it, but she was too far behind the top three skaters, and she was beaten by Rachelle. Iona put forth a brilliant performance, which Yuuko and Skye couldn’t catch, giving Japan two of the top three spots in the ladies’ skate. Japan took the gold medal, America silver, and Russia bronze.

 

Ichizo wasn’t the only retirement announced that affected Viktor and Yuuri. Kirill and Katya had agreed that they were done after this season, as Katya wanted to begin a family and Kirill didn’t want to break in a new partner. Aaron Delmote also announced his retirement after failing to rebound this season. “A shame about that… I never like to see a competitor go out like that.”

Misha gave serious thought to retiring, but ultimately, decided against it. “I’m going to give it one more year, at least, maybe two. We’ll see how I do this season. I don’t want to go out with questions about having stayed too long, but 2014 is an Olympic year…”

Yakov harrumphed. “Don’t stay for the Olympics if you can’t compete the way you want to. It’s not worth the risk of injury.”

“Personal experience,” Viktor whispered to Yuuri. “Yakov stuck around for one more Olympics than his doctor thought he should have, and he ended up needing surgery on the knee that had been bothering him all season.”

“Personal experience or not, it’s good advice,” Yakov said. “That knee still bothers me sometimes when it gets cold, and I live in Russia. It gets cold here a lot.”

“True. Plus, Emya wants another baby, and leaving Nika was hard enough. If I’m leaving two of them… I don’t know that it would be worth it.” Misha shrugged. “Like I said. I’ll see where things stand next April.”

“Hey, Yuuri? Do you know if Phichit’s planning to go to Seniors?”

Yuuri shook his head. “Phichit’s in this for the fame, not the money. Getting medals in Juniors is worth more to him than what he’d get in seniors, so he’s gonna stay another year. Twenty years from now, people will still see the Thai skater that made the podium.”

“Yay!” Mila started bouncing.

 

Yuri wasn’t happy when Boris called and told him that he’d talked to a lawyer and unless Irina could prove that Lev stole from her or that she told him about the pregnancy and he abandoned her anyway, Lev could get a court order allowing him visitation. “It’s probably for the best to avoid going to court, at least until Irina and Yakov can track down whatever documentation there is from the banks, so as much as I don’t like it, you should probably play nice with Lev. Do not tell him anything about your deal with Viktor, or give specifics about deals with sponsors.”

“Do I have to?”

“You don’t have to, but if you keep shutting him out, it’s a bad look for you until we can get Irina’s side of the story out there without it looking like an irrational woman lashing out when she got called on her bad behavior. Between that and the possibility that he’d go to the courts…”

“Yeah. Irina gets into scandal, Natasha has to deal with it. Fine. I put up with you for weeks at a time, I can deal with him for a few hours every now and then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New part will start soonish - I have a lot of holiday stuff to work on, so it may or may not be tomorrow, but definitely by Saturday there should be a shiny new fic.

**Author's Note:**

> Quite the shift this year! Expect to see more of Yuri as the last of the podium family finally makes it to the ice.


End file.
